Bill Harvey: Food for thought

As the guilt set in over too many days of inactivity and indulgence, I spent the last day of 2022 scanning the literature for some good eye-related news stories for the year ahead.

One hot topic showing great promise concerns the development of new oral drugs for diabetes management. The onward march of diabetes has been somewhat overshadowed in recent years by the pandemic, but all ECPs should be mindful of the frightening statistics showing both a rising incidence of the disease and its appearance in ever-younger patients. The potential impact on eye health is obvious.

Injectable drugs, known as GLP-1 agonists, work by acting on receptors to stimulate the production of insulin and are proving to be effective in minimising the effects of diabetes. They are also approved as a weight loss medication, with trials showing them to reduce obesity by nearly a quarter. This year should see the results of trials of oral GLP-1 agonists, which, fingers crossed, should play a major role in the fight against the disease. Assuming celebrity endorsements of their use for dieting do not cause too great a shortage.