Normal-weight people with diabetes are at a higher risk of dying from the disease than overweight people, according to a study done at Northwestern University.

Mercedes Carnethon, study leader and associate professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern, said this doesn’t mean overweight people should avoid losing weight or vice versa. This type isn’t just stemmed from weight, but ethnicity, age and genetics, too. Researchers found that older adults and minority subjects were more likely to face normal-weight Type 2 diabetes than their counterparts.

“We wanted to communicate to physicians in the clinical setting that relying solely on BMI is problematic because people who may not otherwise raise your clinical suspicions may have clinical problems,” she told the Journal of American Medical Association.

Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure, contributes to heart disease and stokes, and is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States. Type 2 makes up a little over 90 percent of those cases.

According to the CDC, close to 26 million Americans are affected with diabetes and Carnethon believes cases of normal-weight diabetes will only rise.

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