Eat healthy, eat less, and exercise more.

These are the typical pieces of advice given to the approximately 23,000 Danes diagnosed with type 2 diabetes every year. It is a chronic disease characterized by elevated blood sugar, which, in principle, stays with you for life.

"Lifestyle changes like weight loss, healthy eating, and exercise have a beneficial effect on your blood sugar if you have type 2 diabetes. But it's far from as easy as it sounds," says Søren Gregersen, clinical professor at the Department of Clinical Medicine and senior physician at Steno Diabetes Center Aarhus.

Together with research colleagues from across Denmark, Søren Gregersen will, through the project On LiMiT, investigate exactly which lifestyle changes are necessary to succeed in altering and maintaining a lifestyle that can keep type 2 diabetes under control.

A total of 1,500 people, who have recently been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and are also overweight, will be recruited for the nationwide research project, which will begin in 2025.

"We will tailor the lifestyle changes to each individual participant, create customized meal plans, and design personalized exercise programs. The key is that what works for me doesn't necessarily work for you. We need to make treatment and prevention of diabetes much more individualized," says Søren Gregersen.

The project is led by clinical professor and senior physician Søren Gregersen and carried out in collaboration with Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen, Steno Diabetes Center Odense, the University of Copenhagen, Bispebjerg Hospital, and the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research.

The project will run from 2025 to 2030 and is supported by 101,811,237 DKK from the Novo Nordisk Foundation.

Contact

Clinical Professor and Senior Physician Søren Gregersen
Aarhus University, Department of Clinical Medicine and
Steno Diabetes Center Aarhus
Phone: +45 30 13 42 45
Email: soeren.gregersen@clin.au.dk

This text is based on a press release from Steno Diabetes Center Aarhus.