A scientist has developed a test that measures levels of five different things in your blood that can tell a person whether or not he or she is at risk for developing diabetes up to 10 years before they would start to show symptoms of type 2, which affects over 220 million people around the world. According to the journal Natural Medicine, if the test becomes widely accepted, it could help people who are at risk for developing the disease to change their lifestyles and/or their diets.

Thomas Wang, the man who developed the test at Massachusetts General Hospital in the United States, said, "These findings could provide insight into metabolic pathways that are altered very early in the process leading to diabetes". To develop the test, Wang and his team took blood samples from 189 people with diabetes and 189 people without the disease. Through measuring the levels of 61 different metabolites, they found five different amino acids that were higher in the participants of the study who had diabetes.

According to Dr. Victoria King of Diabetes UK, early diagnosis of diabetes is essential to avoid side effects of the disease like stroke, kidney failure, blindness, amputation or heart disease. She said the research was not only important for those at risk of developing type 2 diabetes, but that the discoveries could also give more clues about exactly how type 2 diabetes develops and works.