Three ways to prevent diabetes with Professor Naveed Sattar

In today’s episode, we’re talking about a disease so widespread that it touches nearly every family in some way: type 2 diabetes. It’s not just a health issue, it's a rapidly expanding crisis. And many people don’t know that they have it. 

In the U.S. alone, 100 million people have prediabetes, and more than 37 million have type 2 diabetes, a chronic condition with life-altering effects.

Prof. Naveed Sattar joins us to shed light on preventing, treating, and potentially reversing type 2 diabetes. 

Naveed is a medical doctor and Professor of Metabolic Medicine at the Institute of Cardiovascular & Medical Sciences at the University of Glasgow. He’s one of the world’s top 1% most cited clinical scientists, and he’s worked on many clinical trials of lifestyle changes and drugs to prevent and manage diabetes. 

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Timecodes:

00:00Introduction

01:00Topic introduction

02:28Quick fire questions

05:33What is blood sugar and why does it matter?

07:15What is insulin and what is its relation to blood sugar and diabetes?

08:48Why doesn't the body allow sugar to increase in the blood?

10:45What happens when somebody gets pre-diabetes or type 2?

14:34What is HBA1C?

17:08Why has there been such an increase in diabetes?

23:05How does muscle mass have any impact on diabetes?

24:54Are risks different between men and women?

27:08How does ethnicity come into this?

31:04What other personal risk factors are there?

32:29What are the symptoms of diabetes?

33:53When do these symptoms begin?

35:09What should you do if you have concerns?

36:33How to find out your own likelihood of risk

38:34How can we avoid getting diabetes?

42:10How can we combat genetic risk factors?

44:26Is it possible to lower blood sugar and reverse the effects of diabetes?

47:18What is the science behind the new drugs coming on the market?

49:20Summary

53:39Outro

Mentioned in today’s episode: 

• Primary care-led weight management for remission of type 2 diabetes (DiRECT): An open-label, cluster-randomised trial in The Lancet

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Episode transcripts are available here.