New treatments for diabetes-related heart disease are a major focus of the 2018 Diabetes Australia Research Program Grants announced in Melbourne last night.
Diabetes Australia CEO Professor Greg Johnson said heart disease was one of the most significant and serious complications confronting people with diabetes.
Health experts today warned of the alarming increase in gestational diabetes which in the past 12 months has affected 38,000 Australian women during pregnancy.
“In the last ten years, more than 200,000 women have developed gestational diabetes. Latest projections show that over the next decade more than 500,000 women could develop gestational diabetes during pregnancy,” said Professor Greg Johnson, CEO of Diabetes Australia.
Australia’s diabetes experts gathered in Sydney this weekend to discuss bold new plans to dramatically reduce the number of diabetes-related amputations in Australian hospitals every year.
Diabetes Australia CEO Professor Greg Johnson said there were around 4,400 amputations performed in Australian hospitals every year - and up to 85 per cent of these could be prevented.
“The number of diabetes-related amputations of toes, feet and limbs is a national tragedy and we need to do more as a community to save limbs, to save lives and to save hospital budgets,” Professor Johnson said.
“Diabetes-related amputations cost the Australian health system around $875 million per year. On top of this, there is a huge personal cost to the individual and their family.”
Research shows that moderate-to-severe anxiety symptoms, an indication of a potential anxiety disorder, affect one in five people with insulin-treated type 2 diabetes and one in six with type 1 diabetes or non-insulin treated type 2 diabetes.
Dr Adriana Ventura, Research Fellow at the Australian Centre for Behavioural Research in Diabetes (ACBRD) and registered psychologist, who conducted the study, says the prevalence of elevated anxiety symptoms and disorders in people with diabetes is within the range of general population estimates. However, having anxiety and diabetes poses additional challenges.
New research has found that only 5% of Australians aged over 40 have had a type 2 diabetes risk check in the past two years.
Also, more than half of people surveyed were unable name any diabetes related complication despite type 2 diabetes being a leading cause of vision loss, kidney damage, heart attacks, stroke and limb amputation.
Diabetes Australia supports the introduction of a health levy on sugar sweetened drinks to help combat Australia’s obesity epidemic and reduce the number of people developing type 2 diabetes.
New research released today has found that increased sugary drink consumption can increase the risk of type 2 diabetes independent of weight gain or obesity.
Most previous research suggests that increased sugary drink consumption led to weight gain that then led to type 2 diabetes. But an Australian National University led study of 40,000 adults showed the more sugary drinks consumed, the higher the risk of type 2 diabetes independent of weight gain and obesity.
New research shows that sugary drinks sold in Australia have over 20 per cent more glucose compared to those sold in the United States.
The research from the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute compared the sugar content of sugary drinks in Australia, Europe and the U.S. The higher proportion of glucose relate to different sweeteners used in sugary drinks (sugar cane in Australia, corn syrup in the US and sugar beet in Europe).
Latest figures reveal 1.25 million Australians have known diabetes with an additional 108,000 Australians diagnosed with diabetes in just the past 12 months.
The figures have prompted renewed calls from Diabetes Australia for people with diabetes to have regular eye checks.
“Every person with diabetes is at risk of diabetes related retinopathy. Nearly all people with type 1 diabetes, and almost 60 per cent of people with type 2 diabetes, will develop some form of eye disease within 20 years of diagnosis,” said Professor Greg Johnson, CEO of Diabetes Australia .
Associate Professor Stuart Mannering, a global leader in diabetes research, is hoping he can discover a therapy that will ‘turn-off’ the immune response that may cause type 1 diabetes.
Diabetes Australia today announced the prestigious 2017 Millennium Award for Type 1 Diabetes to Associate Professor Mannering for his work at St Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research. The Award provides funding of $150,000.
Diabetes Australia also announced the 2017 Millennium Award for Type 2 diabetes which goes to Dr Seth Masters from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research who will be able to continue his research into how the immune system contributes to obesity, associated with the development of type 2 diabetes.
