Sideways News

Dolphins can switch off diabetes depending on how much food is around

Dolphins have a unique ability to control diabetes, according to scientists, who suggest that the discovery could have implications for a human cure for the condition.

Research conducted at the National Marine Mammal Foundation in San Diego found that the marine mammals can turn the condition on and off depending on how much food they have access to at any given time.

Presenting the findings at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Dr Stephanie Venn-Watson, a veterinary epidemiologist and director of clinical research at the foundation, suggested that this ability results from the creatures' need to maintain high blood sugar levels due to their large brains.

Humans may have once boasted the ability but lost it through evolution and this research could be the first step in helping to re-activate it.

"Maybe this is a smoking gun for a key point to control diabetes in humans," Dr Venn-Watson told the Daily Telegraph.

"Maybe this is a vestige of something dormant that could be awakened and used as a therapy or cure."

The research team will now study dolphin DNA to attempt to work out how they switch the condition off and assess if they can create human therapies for type 2 diabetes.

According to Diabetes UK, there are currently over 2.6 million people with diabetes in the UK, of which 85% have type 2 diabetes.