SOUP AND SHAKE DIET ON THE NHS TO REVERSE DIABETES

Radical treatment could help millions

DIABETICS will be put on low-calorie liquid diets under radical plans to beat the disease.

They will be kept on fat-free shakes and soups for up to five months to reverse the illness. UK research has already found

By Sophie Borland and Kate Foster

that half of 300 type 2 diabetics on the diet were in remission within a year.

The move is being considered by the Scottish Government after trials – partly carried out north of the Border – showed an 800 calorie-a-day regime can reverse the devastating condition.

Patients would also receive intensive support from NHS professionals, which is seen as crucial in the diet’s success.

As well as the Scottish Government’s potential £42million type 2

diabetes plan, NHS England is also looking to launch its own trial which, if successful, would be gradually rolled out.

Almost four million Britons have diabetes, of whom 90 per cent have type 2, which is strongly linked to being overweight or obese. The numbers have almost doubled in 20 years and experts have described it as ‘the biggest health crisis of our time’.

The British Heart Foundation warned that the condition would lead to 400,000 cases of heart disease annually by 2035, 30 per cent more than currently.

People with diabetes are two to four times more likely to have a heart attack or stroke, which means a rise in diabetes cases is expected to trigger a sharp increase in deadly heart and circulatory conditions.

Diabetes also increases the risk of conditions including angina and heart failure.

NHS Scotland spends an estimated £90million on drugs annually to treat more than 276,000 Scots living with diabetes.

Mike Lean, Professor of human nutrition at the University of Glasgow, who led the research, said:

‘Patients want to be in remission’

‘People with diabetes don’t want this disease, they want to be in remission. Internationally, Scotland is now seen as leading the way in intensive weight management with total diet replacement.’

Patients would drink four shakes or soups a day, sachets mixed with water, and nothing else for between three and five months.

This provides them with a maximum daily intake of only 850 calories. A healthy average woman needs 2,000 calories a day, while a man requires 2,500 calories a day.

Trials showed almost 50 per cent of those taking part saw their diabetes go into remission, which meant their blood glucose levels fell into the non-diabetic range. They lost an average of two stone, five pounds each.

Type 2 diabetes occurs when insulin in the pancreas does not work properly, or the pancreas doesn’t make enough insulin. This causes a rise in glucose levels in the blood which, if untreated, leads to heart disease and strokes, kidney disease, liver failure, blindness and nerve damage.

Professor Jonathan Valabhji, a consultant diabetologist at St Mary’s Hospital in Central London and part of Imperial College Healthcare, said: ‘It’s a huge problem that in some respects is the crisis of our time.

‘As we as a population over the last seven decades have had greater availability of food and watched our waistline expand, so we have seen higher and higher numbers with type 2 diabetes.’

Professor Valabhji added: ‘Not only are we seeing greater numbers, what we’re also rather frighteningly seeing is younger age of onset.

‘I may have been looking after the grandfather for the last couple of decades who was diagnosed at the age of 65, then the father came onto my book who was diagnosed at the age of 48. Now I’ve got the granddaughter diagnosed at 29.

‘I’ve got quite a lot of people who are in their 20s with type 2 diabetes which we simply didn’t see when I started practising. You’d write that up in a journal if you saw it back then; now we’re seeing it all the time.’

The diet has been tested in a study of 298 patients carried out by Glasgow and Newcastle Universities, known as the DiRECT trial.

Bridget Turner, director of policy, campaigns and improvement at Diabetes UK, which funded the initial DiRECT study, said: ‘Early results are very exciting.’

A Scottish Government spokesman said the scheme would be introduced as part of its crackdown on obesity.

He added: ‘Our diet and healthy weight delivery plan strives to make a significant impact on the prevention and remission of type 2 diabetes, including our commitment to invest £42million over five years. This includes intensive weight management programmes.’

‘The Prevention Framework provides national guidance on evidenced-based weight management interventions for people identified as “at risk” of developing type 2 diabetes and those recently diagnosed.

‘One of the interventions considered is the recently published DiRECT study, which consists of 12 weeks of total diet replacement, followed by food reintroduction and weight loss maintenance.’