Changing Health Programme app being shown on phone
By Jamie Innes
Blog 27 September 2017

A ground-breaking new study by academics from Newcastle University has proven Type 2 Diabetes is reversible in just 12 weeks, as shown on the BBC1 documentary How to Stay Young.

Tina, 45, used the Changing Health service, which combines digital diabetes education with behavioural change coaching, to adopt a healthy diet she could sustain and an effective exercise plan over the 12 week study. She is now diabetes and medication free.

Changing Health was also shown to have helped Tina lose 10% of her body weight, reduce her BMI from “overweight” classified 27 to “normal” classified 24, and reduce her body age by 15 years from 67 to 52.

Over the 12 weeks her blood pressure dropped significantly from 121/81 to 100/63 and her cognition was shown to have improved.

Tina said: “I was really shocked when Professor Trenell said the words ‘If Tina walked in now, I wouldn’t say Tina has type 2 diabetes – I’d say Tina had type 2 diabetes’. Before Changing Health I had to take a lot of medication to manage my diabetes, which made me feel terrible. I didn’t know I had the potential to take control of my health, this has changed my life.”

Professor Trenell, who led the study, said: “Tina’s story demonstrates just how effective a lifestyle intervention can be in preventing diabetes. With the number of people at risk rapidly increasing year-on-year, we’re edging dangerously close to a full-blown public health crisis. It’s never been more important that people receive evidence-based education and personalised support to prevent or reverse their diabetes. That’s the solution Changing Health offers.”

How to Stay Young airs at 9PM, Wednesday 27 September on BBC1 and is repeated on Sunday evening. Changing Health is prescribed by the NHS for people with, or at risk of Type 2 diabetes.

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