NEWS
The research team, led by Professor
Iskandar Idris, looked at cardiovascular
events in over 11,000 people with Type
2 in the UK, including heart disease, heart
attack and stroke. They compared 131
people who had bariatric surgery with 579
similar people who had not, and examined
their health over 10 years. All participants
were at first being treated with insulin,
with an average age of 52. Over the 10-
year period, people in the surgery group
were 71% less likely to have developed
coronary heart disease and 69% less
likely to have peripheral arterial disease.
Director of Research at Diabetes
UK, Dr Elizabeth Robertson, comments:
"While [this surgery] won't be suitable for
everyone and may not be a treatment
of choice for some people, evidence is
building that weight loss surgery should
become a more widely accessible
treatment option. For now, the best way
to reduce your risk of cardiovascular
complications is to keep your blood
glucose, blood pressure and blood fat at
healthy levels, seek help to stop smoking,
keep active and eat a healthy, balanced
diet."
T1D and deprivation
Health records of people with Type 1
diabetes in Scotland has revealed the
health inequalities depending on where
they live. Researchers examined more
than 30,000 records from 2004 to 2016,
looking at any differences in blood sugar,
control between different ages, social
groups and gender. The research found
that people with Type 1 living in the most
deprived areas of Scotland had higher
blood sugar levels than people from the
least deprived areas (on average, HbA1c
was 7.78mmol/mol higher in most
deprived areas than least deprived areas).
Social deprivation is also strongly
linked to higher levels of physical inactivity,
poor diet, smoking and poor blood
pressure control, which can all increase
the risk of developing serious diabetes
complications. Professor Helen Colhoun,
from University of Edinburgh, who led
the research, said of the results, "This
underlines the need for policies to tackle
these inequalities since they lead to higher
rates of diabetes complications."
Insider edge
For the second year, Diabetes UK
has included an Insider Day after the
professional's part of the conference
had ended. This day was for people
with diabetes to come along and listen
to speakers and talk to suppliers, giving
them the opportunity to take part and
actually handle products.
According to Chris Aldred, known
online as the Grumpy Pumper, who
attended the day, "The key message I
heard from the HCPs in the sessions that
I attended at the Insider Day was 'Don't
beat yourself up about your blood glucose
test results, an in-range HbA1c is not
easy to achieve. Diabetes management is
really hard. It's not your fault, or a matter
of blame.' It was refreshing to hear this
at an event aimed at people living with
diabetes."
www.diabetes.org.uk
Chris Aldred, aka the Grumpy
Pumper, says Diabete UK's
Insider Day was 'refreshing'.
www.the-grumpy-pumper.com