World Obesity Day 2024
March 4, 2024
For World Obesity 2024 we are highlighting the amazing research being carried out by our Diabetes/Endocrinology Clinical Co-Lead professor Alex Miras. Prof Miras is a Clinical Professor of Endocrinology at Ulster University and former Senior Clinical Lecturer and Consultant in Endocrinology at Imperial College London. His clinical and research work focus solely on Obesity and type 2 diabetes.
In 2016, more than 1.9 billion adults were overweight — defined as a body mass index (BMI) of 25 or more. Of these, over 650 million were living with obesity — defined as a BMI of 30 or more. By 2035 predictions say 1 in 4 people (800 million) will live with obesity, making it a global health challenge and placing a high burden on individuals, healthcare systems, and society. Being overweight and having obesity are complex chronic conditions involving abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that presents a risk to a person’s overall health.
Professor Miras has contributed to the clinical management and research of Obesity over the last 12 years, through his work at a high throughput Obesity Centre. He is currently the primary investigator for the SYNCHRONIZE-CVOT trial in Western and Northern Health and Social Care trusts. SYNCHRONIZE a Boehringer Inglheim global trial, investigates the drug survodutide for people living with obesity, with and without diabetes, cardiovascular disease and chronic kidney disease. Phase 1 and Phase 2 trials saw people living overweight or with obesity achieve up to 19 percent weight loss by taking the trial drug.
On obesity Prof Miras said, “The aim of my clinical and research work is to help solve the problem of obesity. I am advocating for equal and wider access to good care for the treatment of the disease of obesity. With my research work I am trying to develop new safe and effective treatments to help people with obesity suffer less, live longer and healthier lives and reduce the economic burden to the healthcare system”.
To find out more about World Obesity Day, click here:
https://www.worldobesityday.org/
To find out more about the SYNCHRONIZE Trial, click here:
https://www.boehringer-ingelheim.com/phase-3-studies-survodutide-obesity-and-overweight
To find out more about Professor Miras’s research, click here: https://pure.ulster.ac.uk/en/persons/alexander-miras