Can young adults between the ages of 18 and 45, who have type 2 diabetes and obesity, put their condition into remission with a low-calorie meal replacement and a structured exercise program?
Moreover, can the exercise component improve their cardiac health and reduce their risk for future heart disease?
Those are the questions being asked by the RESET for Remission clinical trial, now recruiting patients in Montreal, Edmonton, and Leicester UK.
On March 7th, in a 90-minute webinar hosted by the IPTN, three of the trial’s 14 investigators will share the study design and perspectives so far. The IPTN webinar speakers are:
Dr. Kaberi Dasgupta, a physician, researcher, and professor of Medicine at McGill University. Her research focuses on the prevention and treatment of type 2 diabetes. She is the lead investigator of the RESET for Remission trial.
Normand Boule, PhD , a professor and associate dean in the Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation at the University of Alberta. His research program focuses on the role of exercise in preventing and managing diabetes.
Dr. Roseanne Yeung, an associate professor of Endocrinology and Metabolism at the University of Alberta. Dr. Yeung has a special interest in improving diabetes care delivery with peer support, community health workers, and improved educational resources, including assessing the impacts and treatments of young-onset type 2 diabetes.
“We are excited to have these three impressive researchers presenting their important research trial in our webinar. It is sure to be a fascinating discussion,” said Sean McKelvey, the CEO and founder of the IPTN.
The nutritional part of the trial is similar to the successful UK DiRECT trial, which coached and supported patients to use low-calorie meal replacement for 12 weeks, then reintroduced healthy whole foods, to put type 2 diabetes into remission.
However, the RESET trial adds two new elements: a younger type 2 diabetes population and an exercise component.
Dr. Dasgupta told the McGill University News in November 2022 that in the UK, a large pilot project is currently being implemented to offer just the DiRECT-style dietary component to several thousand younger adults living with type 2 diabetes. The RESET trial innovation, Dr. Dasgupta said, “is the combination of the diet with supervised exercise, to understand the added benefits.”
The protocol for the RESET trial, published in the September 2022 BMJ Open, will be a key feature of the presentation and discussion during the March 7 webinar. In short, the trial will be enrolling 100 people ages 18 to 45 in Montreal, Edmonton, and Leicester who are within six years of their type 2 diabetes diagnosis, not on insulin, with a BMI of 30 or greater.
People with type 2 diabetes have higher long-term rates of heart disease. The researchers note in their protocol description that diastolic dysfunction is one of the earliest symptoms of heart stress in people with type 2 diabetes.
While it is known that the nutritional intervention can put diabetes into remission, so far the dietary intervention has not been shown to improve diastolic dysfunction. This is one reason why the exercise component was added to the trial.
The RESET for Remission Trial is a Canada-UK project funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), as part of the “100 Years of Insulin” program, and by the Medical Research Council of the United Kingdom.
The IPTN webinar takes place Tuesday, March 7, from 2 pm to 3:30 pm Pacific Time (5 pm to 6:30 pm Eastern.) The three speaker’s presentations will be followed by questions and discussion. The program is eligible for 1.5 Mainpro CME credits.
Register for the webinar here: