An intensive course of insulin injections may be better at preventing the spread of type-2 diabetes than oral treatment, new research suggests.
Chinese scientists conducted a trial involving nearly 400 people between the ages of 25 and 70, all of whom had been diagnosed with type-2 diabetes.
Two groups of participants were placed on different types of intensive insulin therapy, while the remaining volunteers took standard oral treatment.
After 12 months, researchers from Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou found that more of the patients on insulin injections had regained blood glucose control than in the oral therapy group.
Publishing their findings in the Lancet, the scientists wrote: 'Early intensive insulin therapy in patients with newly-diagnosed type-2 diabetes has favourable outcomes on recovery and maintenance of [insulin-producing] cell function and prolonged glycaemic remission compared with treatment with oral hypoglycaemic agents.'
Type-2 diabetes accounts for between 85 and 95 per cent of all cases of diabetes.
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