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RESEARCH NEWS
Researchers from the University of Leicester have received a £1.9 million grant to undertake one of the largest scale diabetes prevention programmes in the UK.
The study, called the Prevention of Diabetes Through Physical Activity Education with Different Levels of Ongoing Support (PROPELS), aims to provide information to the NHS to help reduce the number of people who develop type 2 diabetes in the future.
The University’s Diabetes Research Team will use a grant from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment programme to assess the benefits of a long-term diabetes prevention method called Structured Education.
A spokesperson for the NIHR Health Technology Assessment (HTA) programme said: “The
Universities of Leicester and Cambridge spearhead one of UK’s biggest diabetes prevention programmes
NIHR HTA programme identifies the most important questions that the NHS needs answers to through wide consultation and has highlighted this area as being of national importance”.
This approach involves encouraging people at risk of developing type 2 diabetes to engage in physical activity, which has been shown to lower blood glucose levels over one to two years.
Professor Kamlesh Khunti, Professor Melanie Davies and Dr Tom Yates, of the Departments of Health Sciences and Cardiovascular Sciences, are collaborating with researchers at the
Cool hands may be key to increasing exercise capacity
Cooling the palms of the hands while working out could help you stick with a physical activity program, according to a small study presented at the American Heart Association’s Epidemiology and Prevention/Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism 2012 Scientific Sessions.
In the study, obese women who exercised while using the AvaCore Rapid Thermal Exchange (RTX palm cooling device) improved their exercise tolerance and cardiovascular fitness.
“Obese women often complain about sweating and getting tired because they’re walking around with extra insulation,” said Stacy T. Sims, Ph.D., the study’s lead researcher and exercise physiologist and nutrition scientist at Stanford University in California. “If you can slow the rate at which internal temperature rises and cool someone who is obese, they don’t store as much heat and don’t feel as uncomfortable. They can do more work.”
The cooling devices cooled the palms of the hand and circulating blood, thus pulling heat off the body.
Sims suggested that holding a bottle of cold water may also cool palms and help exercisers feel cooler, less sweaty and less fatigued – allowing them to work out longer and make them more likely to stick with their exercise regimen.
University of Cambridge and the MRC to test whether this approach is effective among participants across Leicester and Cambridge.
After participants have received the education programme, the study will compare the effect of low and high intensity support on long-term behaviour change.
Professor Khunti said: “Type 2 diabetes is an increasingly common, chronic condition affecting 6 million people in the UK. Type 2 diabetes costs the NHS over £10 billion annually. Many cases of type 2 diabetes are preventable through changes to lifestyle, such as increasing physical activity.
There is very little data on how long-term education programmes can reduce type 2 diabetes. We hope to explore how much ongoing support is needed to sustain behaviour change in people at high risk of developing diabetes. “