Diabetes linked to birth weight

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• Oxford University

Babies born with a low birth weight are more likely to develop diabetes later in life, according to new research done at Oxford University.

It's the first time scientists have found a genetic link between birth weight and Type 2 diabetes.

The team behind the study hope they'll be able to use their work to develop better treatments and new ways of preventing people from getting diabetes.

Professor Mark McCarthy has been telling Heart: "Genetic studies can reveal some of the processes that go wrong as somebody develops diabetes and that can give us pretty important clues that we may be able to translate - we hope - in time into better treatments and better ways of preventing this disease."

Listen to Professor Mark McCarthy talking about the study