DREAM Trial Reduces Risk of Progression to Diabetes

The DREAM stands for Diabetes REduction Assessment with ramipril and rosiglitazone Medications. It is a trial that lasted for three years and involved 5,269 people 'pre-diabetes’ condition. It’s main goal was to determine whether diabetes development from pre-diabetes condition could be stopped or slowed down. The results that came out from the study are promising.

Diabetes type 2 is a chronic disease that affects around 230 million people worldwide. The more worrying fact is that every ten seconds a person dies of diabetes related diseases. The numbers are expected to rise higher in the following 15 years.

Pre-diabetes is a condition in which blood sugar levels are higher than normal, but not high enough for a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes. Pre-diabetes could be a turning point and this is exactly what the scientists were trying to find out-if there were a way back..

Of all the study participants, 10.6 % of people who were treated with rosiglitazone progressed to type 2 diabetes compared to 25% who received placebo. This is a very important finding showing that the risk of progression to type 2 diabetes could be reduced and it represents good ground for future treatments of pre-diabetes and type-2 diabetes to improve patient lives.