A year's experience in a clinic for obese diabetics

The problem of obesity is not well dealt with in the ordinary diabetes clinic. We therefore started a clinic for obese diabetics, the principles of which are mentioned. We reviewed the results of its ifrst year's activity in relation to 80 patients who attended for at least 3 months, and found: (i) a very frequent family history of diabetes in first-degree relatives (59% among Coloured patients); (ii) very commonly, an abnormal ECG, suggestive of ischaemic heart disease (about 60%); (iii) very frequent serum lipid abnormalities, yet no correlation between high lipid levels and an abnormal ECT; (iv) a mean loss of 5,9 kg over 8,6 months for the 80 patients (mean loss of 10,4 kg by the 8 men); (v) patients who had been fat in childhood actually lost more weight than did those who became overweight only in adult life; and (vi) oral hypoglycaemic drugs and even insulin could frequently be discontinued. We believe the clinic is worthwhile.