PROF ROY TAYLOR

Diabetes Treatment Pioneer

THE figures are alarming, but the human stories behind them are heart-wrenching.

In the UK, a person is diagnosed with diabetes every two minutes. It could be a person very near you.

One in 15 people have diabetes, and 90 per cent of these have Type 2 diabetes.

Every week, diabetes is responsible for around 170 amputations of feet or toes, 700 strokes and 500 heart attacks. A total of £14 billion is spent by the NHS annually on the costs of diabetes, but the overall costs to the country are much, much greater.

Being told that you have Type 2 is like a hammer blow. Suddenly, you have lost your health and the future is uncertain. The effects of the diabetes – on feet, heart, eyes, kidneys, brain and nerves – may cut short your working life as well as life itself.

Personal tragedies are family tragedies and the official statistics just do not tell the whole story.

Last week we were able to publish the results of further studies on what is really going on inside the body to cause Type 2.

We have now tracked the villain to its lair. The villain is fat. People with Type 2 diabetes simply have fat in the wrong places. You do not need to be very heavy to develop Type 2 – just susceptible.

We know your genes control whether you can store all your fat effortlessly in the layer under the skin – where it causes no harm. Some people cannot and as a result it overspills into the liver and then into the pancreas where it gradually shuts down the genes for making insulin.

Our new research concerns people who volunteered to take part in DiRECT, a large study funded by Diabetes UK.

We showed weight loss caused liver fat levels to shoot down from a very unhealthy 17 per cent to 3 per cent. This caused fat levels in the pancreas to decrease. And the insulin-producing cells woke up. Dramatic changes.

But over two years, some people gained weight and for the very first time, scientists had a ring-side seat. Our predictions were confirmed – fat overspilled from safe stores, silted up in the liver and in the pancreas. And the poor old insulin-producing cells were overwhelmed again.

You don’t need to be very heavy to develop Type 2 – just susceptible says Prof Taylor THE 800 calories-a-day diet is designed to be a short-term plan made up of meal replacements. Participants usually consume soups or shakes for about 12 weeks before gradually reintroducing themselves to normal, healthy food. Low-calorie diet soups and shakes are not yet available on the NHS although they are available on the high street.