One giant step in diabetes treatment
Hasselt research project could spell a breakthrough in diabetes treatment, and for the first time allow diabetics to act on the cause of the disease rather than its symptoms
Research project was awarded prestigious €20,000 grant
For healthy athletes, the findings didn’t change much. But for diabetics, the result could spell a breakthrough in treatment of their disease.
“Patients with Type 2 diabetes very often have an accumulation of muscle fats,” says Dominique Hansen, a rehabilitation physician at Reval, the Rehabilitation Research Centre of the University of Hasselt. “Because this heaping up of fats leads to increased insulin sensitivity, it can be seen as a major cause of the disease.”
Hansen has just started a research project to test his hypothesis: Does physical training on an empty stomach automatically lead to a major improvement in blood sugar control compared to exercise on a full stomach? If the hypothesis is confirmed, Type 2 diabetes patients would be able to directly act on the cause of their disease, instead of just influencing the symptoms.
Hansen’s project recently received a €20,000 grant from the King Baudouin Foundation. Once every three years, the KBF grants an award to a clinical trial or research project focusing on cancer or diabetes. This year, Princess Astrid awarded the Reval project the Yvonne and Jacques François-de Meurs Fund on 14 November – World Diabetes Day.
Diabetes on the increase
Over the next few months, Hansen will closely monitor a group of diabetes patients who will complete physical training every day – some on an empty stomach, others on a full stomach. In the process, Hansen also wants to study which fundamental mechanism underlies this possible breakthrough in diabetes treatment. “We’ll look for the molecular mechanisms in their muscles that lie at the bottom of the improved blood sugar control as a result of training,” he explains.
Many people don’t even know that they suffer from Type 2 diabetes
With poor eating habits – just think of our love of sugar- and fat-based products – and not enough physical activity, Type 2 diabetes is spreading like an epidemic across Flanders. At the moment, 8% of people living in Flanders are diabetic.
But, according to Hansen, the real figure is much higher. “Many people don’t know – yet – that they suffer from Type 2 diabetes,” he says. The International Diabetes Federation has estimated that the number of diabetics will climb to almost 23% across Europe by 2030.
Today diabetes is a largely controllable disease. Frightening needle injections directly into the vein have been replaced by patient-friendly and pain-free “insulin delivery systems” – some involving no needles at all. A number of patients even get by with orally administered insulin.
But when not properly treated, diabetes carries serious consequences. “Type 2 diabetes increases the risk of blindness, cardiovascular diseases, kidney failure, nerve damage and – in the worst cases – amputation of the lower limbs,” says Hansen. “That’s why we see, even today, a lower life expectancy in diabetics of between six and eight years.”

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