Drop in type 2 diabetes diagnoses in UK, charity reveals

There has been a reduction in the number of people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, according to charity Diabetes UK.
The charity’s analysis, published today to mark the start of Type 2 Diabetes Prevention Week, reveals that there were three people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes every three minutes in 2017, representing 552 cases per day. The good news is that there were 27 less people per day within 2017 being told they have the condition compared to in 2016.
In England and Wales, a total of 202,665 people were diagnosed with the condition in 2017, the latest year for which latest figures are available, which represents a drop from 211,425 in the previous year. Diabetes UK collected the data from the NHS Digital National Diabetes Audit.
The drop coincides with the growing low carb movement, championed by Diabetes Digital Media (DDM), the organisation behind Diabetes.co.uk and the award-winning Low Carb Program.
The Low Carb Program’s one-year outcomes, published in 2018, revealed that the average participant with type 2 diabetes loses 7.4kg and reduces their HbA1c by 1.2%. Significantly, 26% achieved remissio, defined as reducing HbA1c into normal levels while taking no glucose-lowering medications or just metformin.
Commenting on the Diabetes UK analysis, NHS England’s associate clinical director for diabetes Dr Partha Kar said: “These figures underline the importance of wider action on obesity prevention, and confirm the importance of the action set out in the NHS Long Term Plan.
“This includes expanding the NHS Type 2 Diabetes Prevention Programme so that 200,000 people every year can benefit, and introducing a pilot of very low calorie diets that have been shown to put type 2 diabetes into remission in a significant proportion of those that already have it.”
In February, Diabetes UK said there were 4.7 million with people in the UK with diabetes, including both type 1 diabetes and 2 diabetes.