Insulin-resistance (IR) in older age

A study pool of 1549 normoglycemic elderly in the age range of 65-84 years, taken from the epidemiological Italian Longitudinal Study on Aging (ILSA), was constructed. The values of IR, %B and %S were analyzed using the homeostasis assessment model-2 (HOMA-2). In the subjects displaying normal values of several studied parameters such as the arterial blood pressure, total cholesterol (T-CH), high-density lipoproteins (HDL), and triglycerides (TG), the values of IR, %B and %S remained in the normal ranges (in average 1.66 ± 1.11, 133.64 ± 63.56 and 91.12 ± 79.75, respectively). These latter values increase in the subjects who had altered values of the studied basic parameters listed above, and the increases were higher with the higher frequency of the altered parameters. The results seem to confirm the possibility that the normoglycemic elderly subjects having a compensatory insulin hypersecretion against the IR, may develop a type 2 diabetes or a metabolic syndrome.