Shanghai’s Zhongshan Hospital says its clinical research, which uses one diabetes medicine plus medium-intensity lifestyle intervention, can enable 44 percent of obese or overweight diabetic patients to resume a healthy glucose level and stop taking medicine.
The research has attracted international attention – a number of foreign hospitals and facilities have been in touch with the hospital soon after its article was published.
They expressed interest in the research and wanted more information and cooperation with the hospital on the method, which is effective and easy for patients to accept, Zhongshan doctors said.
Zhongshan Hospital’s research was published in The British Medical Journal on Thursday.
China is home to the largest number of diabetics, with an incidence in Shanghai of 12.8 percent.
“Medical treatments for diabetes include medication and non-medication, which involves weight-loss surgery and lifestyle intervention. Surgery is costly and has complications and risks, while many patients fail to change their lifestyle,” said Dr Li Xiaoying, director of Zhongshan’s endocrinology department. “So finding a safe, effective and feasible method is a top task for diabetes prevention and control.”
Doctors designed a one-year research program which only gives one medicine, Dapagliflozin (which uses the kidneys to help control glucose levels by increasing the amount of glucose removed from the body through urine) and a renovated diet plan, which is about one-third lower than normal intake.
Patients show very positive result. After nine months, 44 percent of patients were in remission, which means they stopped taking the medicine and their glucose level remained normal only by sticking to the healthy lifestyle, doctors said.
“Their body fat, blood pressure and blood fat also have good performance,” said Li Xiaomu, a leading expert in the research.
According to her, previous research in the UK only adopts lifestyle intervention with an extremely low calorie diet, which cuts two thirds of normal intake. About 49 percent of the participants reported diabetes remission.
“But such a diet is too harsh, and can result in patients’ poor compliance with most patients unable to adopt it for a long time. Our plan is more feasible. Many patients in our research are still diabetes free and the longest record so far is over one year,” she said.
“This research offers a new solution for effective diabetes control and has a strong clinical meaning,” she said.
,https://www.shine.cn/news/metro/2501238555/