Diabetes mellitus
Diabetes mellitus is a group of metabolic disorders in which there are high blood sugars over a prolonged period. Rates of type-2 (or adult onset) diabetes have increased rapidly in recent decades due to changes in diet and other lifestyle factors. Patients with diabetes are at increased risk of a number of diseases, most notably cardiovascular disease, kidney disease and damage to the eyes.
CTSU’s large blood based cohorts, including the China Kadoorie Biobank (CKB), UK Biobank and the Mexico study are starting to and will increasingly provide new insights into the causes of diabetes, which will lead to better ways to prevent and treat diabetes.
Patients with diabetes have a significantly higher (2-4 times) risk of cardiovascular disease so there is a need to find cheap and safe ways of prevention. The ASCEND trial, one of the largest (15,000 participants) randomised trials in diabetics, investigated whether aspirin and omega-3 fatty acids are effective in preventing cardiovascular disease in people with diabetes.