Focus on Diabetes: Sunway Biomedical Symposium

Prof. Paul Zimmet
attended the recent Sunway Biomedical Symposium.

Professor Mark Cooper and Professor Paul Zimmet recently attended the Sunway Biomedical Symposium in Malaysia.  Leading academics from the University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, Jeffrey Cheah School of Medicine and Health Sciences and Monash University came together for the two-day symposium. With a focus on diabetes mellitus, the theme was "Diabetes: Disarming the Silent Killer".

The major cost of diabetes is its complications. Professor Cooper’s presentation highlighted new approaches to these complications such as SGLT2 Inhibitors and GLP-1 analysis, which appear to offer end-organ protection independent of their glucose lowering effects.






Professor Zimmet discussed the common link role between the disruption of circadian rhythm, the major regulator of human health and metabolism and the metabolic syndrome, a cluster of cardio-metabolic risk factors. Proposing that Circadian Syndrome is a more apt definition, bringing together the cardio-metabolic cluster and the comorbidities under one “umbrella”.

These discoveries are topical in the wake of the recent government inquiry into the importance of sleep. With shift workers most at risk, the inquiry highlights the 20 to 40 per cent increase in the likelihood of developing chronic health issues, such as Type 2 diabetes, due to poor sleep. The report recommends that sleep should be treated with the same importance as diet and exercise.