Low carb diet saves NHS £4m in diabetes costs

By Editor
2nd November 2016
Care planning, diabetes.co.uk Education Latest news

The support being offered by an online low carb programme has so far saved the NHS £4 million in prescription costs, it was revealed yesterday.

The free Low Carb Program by the UK’s biggest and fastest growing diabetes patient forum Diabetes.co.uk has so far helped more than 160,000 people since it was launched on World Diabetes Day 2015.

Speaking at the EHI Live event in Birmingham, Arjun Panesar, chief technology officer of the platform,  outlined how the programme worked and shared some of the results they have seen from people who have followed it.

He said: “The results from have been impressive and this a solution that is clearly working for people with type 2 diabetes. We’re in the process of documenting the preliminary results with healthcare savings. We intend to share this with PHE/Diabetes UK for them to review the guidelines.”

He said also the estimated saving involved people stopping their prescriptions for drugs to treat type 2 diabetes and the predicted cost was conservative.

The programme takes people through the theory and also provides the practical application on how to implement a low carb lifestyle.

Diabetes.co.uk was the first community forum where people were able to openly share their experiences or discuss life with diabetes including low carb lifestyles due to the fact that the diet sits outside of NICE guidelines which meant other platforms discouraged or removed their conversations.

However, there is now growing medical evidence that type 2 diabetes can be reversed through diet and lifestyle changes.

Results from the Low Carb Education Progamme have been impressive and show how sharing data can in fact help change lives and help reduce type 2 diabetes in the UK.

The presentation was part of a session at the EHI Live event in Birmingham which explored the Big Data revolution and how having access to vast amounts of data provides healthcare providers with unique and exciting opportunities.

EHI Live 2016 is now in its ninth year and is the UK’s largest digital health event, attracting visitors and delegates who are keen to listen to industry figures and investigate new technologies.

The show is ideal for those with a close interest in the use of information in healthcare.

 

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