Tiny balloon that cooks your insides may halt diabetes

A BALLOON no bigger than a grain of rice could be the secret to beating Britain’s diabetes epidemic.

Dozens of patients with type 2 diabetes are being recruited to a revolutionary trial to see whether the treatment could help them come off medication.

The tiny inflatable works by burning away some of the lining of the intestine. Doctors insert a thin tube down the throat with the deflated silicone balloon on the end.

Once it has reached the duodenum – the foot-long part of the intestine where much of our food is digested – the balloon is inflated and hot water is pumped through.

As it presses against the duodenum, the hot surface of the balloon sears the surrounding tissue.

The theory behind the treatment – which takes about 90 minutes and is done under sedation – is that the burning process, called ablation, improves patients’ ability to absorb and process sugar. If successful the technique could be rolled out more widely, saving the NHS millions.

Scientists think gently ‘cooking’ abnormal cells lining the duodenum allows new ones to form. These then release hormones to improve the processing of glucose, or sugar, from food. This means blood glucose levels fall and circulation improves, reducing the danger of diabetes complications such as strokes, heart attacks and amputations.

Charity Diabetes UK says the number affected by the disease has soared by almost 60 per cent in a decade to 3.3million.

If current trends continue, experts believe there will be an estimated five million sufferers by 2025.

Ninety per cent of current diabetes patients have type 2, which is usually associated with being overweight. The remaining 10 per cent have type 1, which is caused by the body’s inability to produce insulin and cannot be prevented. It is not yet known whether the new treatment could help type 1 patients.

Diabetes accounts for 10 per cent of the entire NHS drugs bill, with GPs dishing out £2.2million worth of prescriptions every day.

Doctors at University College Hospital in London are among the first to trial the new treatment. It is hoped many patients will be able to come off glucose-lowering drugs.

The technique, called Revita, has been developed by US company Fractyl Laboratories Inc.

An early trial on 22 men in Chile found it kept blood sugar under control for months or even years.