Major study into diabetes outlined in Inverness
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A PROFESSOR co-leading a major research study into diabetes outlined how a new intensive weight loss and management programme can help to reverse the condition when he spoke at a meeting in Inverness.
Mike Lean, head of human nutrition at the University of Glasgow, is involved in the Diabetes Remission Clinical Trial (DiRECT).
The project, also involving experts from Newcastle University, is funded by the charity, Diabetes UK.
The Inverness and District Diabetes Scotland Group has also contributed to the research and invited the professor to a meeting at the Spectrum Centre.
The trial, launched amid growing numbers of people being diagnosed with the condition, recruited more than 300 people from GP practices across Scotland and Tyneside. All had been diagnosed with type two diabetes and were overweight.
The programme, involving a strict diet of soups and shakes totalling 800 calories a day for several months before returning to a more normal diet, showed almost half the participants were in remission after one year.
Another year later, 70 per cent of those people were still in remission.
Professor Lean said the results were “incredibly exciting”.
“Now we must focus on helping people maintain their weight loss and stay in remission for life,” he said.
He was grateful to the contribution from Inverness and said people realised how serious type two diabetes was and how valuable it would be to have a treatment researched and developed.
“Now let’s see whether NHS Highland is going to act on this and reward the people of Inverness by making this treatment available,” he said.
