Sitting in a diver’s tank may ward off diabetes

SHOrT sessions in a special diving chamber may help to reduce the risk of developing diabetes. Early research suggests the treatment can dramatically boost the body’s sensitivity to insulin — the hormone that helps mop up sugar from the blood and takes it to cells.

Insulin resistance is a condition in which the body produces insulin but does not use it effectively. The pancreas tries to produce more insulin in order to keep blood sugar levels normal.

Ultimately this can lead to type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the condition, because the pancreas fails to keep up with the body’s increased need for insulin and, as a result, blood sugar levels rise to an unhealthy level.

Insulin resistance is linked to obesity, especially excess f at around t he waist. Losing weight and taking exercise can reverse insulin resistance, preventing or delaying type 2 diabetes.

Now preliminary r esults suggest that sitting in an oxygen chamber can increase the sensitivity to insulin to the same extent as achieved by losing 13 per cent of body weight.

Originally developed f or treating divers with ‘the bends’ or decompression sickness, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, which i nvolves sitting in a chamber and breathing in pure oxygen, i s used f or a number of conditions, including wound healing.

The theory i s that the t herapy delivers more oxygen to aid healing.

Now, a trial involving 20 people is under way at t he University of Adelaide, Australia, to test its effectiveness for people at risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Patients on the trial will undergo two 90minute hyperbaric sessions, during which time they will breathe 100 per cent oxygen. results of a small pilot study with f i ve patients by the Australian team showed that insulin sensitivity i ncreased by around 40 per cent f ollowing three treatments over five weeks.

Just how the therapy could work is not clear and that is one of the aims of the new research.

The researchers say it may be that the extra oxygen the treatment delivers to the blood and tissues reduces inflammation in f atty tissues, which can affect insulin levels. Dr Alas- dair rankin, director of fundraising for Diabetes UK, said: ‘Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is used to treat a number of medical conditions, but i ts potential f or use i n type 2 diabetes is in the early stages of investigation.

‘ This research i s welcome because it may help us better understand the reasons for insulin resistance and could potentially lead to a new treatment suitable for some people with diabetes in the future.

‘ Similar improvements are possible by making changes to your lifestyle, such as eating a healthy balanced diet and doing regular physical activity, along with taking any medication you are prescribed. These are the most important things you can

MEANWHILE, do to improve your health.’ a study has found cinnamon may help lower blood sugar levels in people with type 2 diabetes.

At Canadian study by the Western University of Health Sciences, based on more than 500 people, found that those who had cinnamon daily for up to four months reduced blood glucose levels significantly — by nearly 25 mg/dL.

This is a greater reduction t han seen with some oral diabetes medicines. And their levels of ‘ bad’ LDL cholesterol levels went down, while ‘ good’ HDL cholesterol went up, according to the Annals of Family Medicine. The amount of cinnamon ranged from 120mg to 6g a day for between four to 18 weeks.

It’s thought a compound in the spice called MHCP works like insulin, the hormone produced by the pancreas to control the amount of glucose or sugar in the blood.