Glucose tolerance in two unacculturated Indian tribes of Brazil

Abstract

Plasma levels of glucose, insulin, growth hormone, and pancreatic polypeptide in response to a standard oral glucose load were studied in the Yanomama and the Marubo, two relatively unacculturated Amerindian tribes of the Brazilian Amazon. The findings in the two tribes differed significantly from each other and in the degree of deviation from control subjects. The average responses in both tribes differed significantly from those of age- and sex-matched Caucasoid control subjects studied in Ann Arbor, Michigan; however, of the two tribes, the Marubo, the more acculturated group, resembled the controls more closely. Plasma concentrations of glucose and the hormones at three time points (fasting, 1 h, 2 h) were compared by means of a multivariate analysis. When the Marubo were compared with the control subjects, the only highly significant difference was in the plasma glucose concentrations (all three points were higher in the Marubo); however, the Yanomama differed significantly from the control subjects with respect to all four plasma indicators ( p < 0.05). Unlike the Marubo, the Yanomama showed no significant rise in plasma glucose at 1 h and no decrease at 2 h. Neither tribe exhibited the bimodality of the 2 h glucose value characteristic of acculturated Amerindians, such as the Pima, but the samples studied were small.