A clinical trial now enrolling at UAB is taking an unusual approach to help patients with Type 2 diabetes. Instead of medications, the study is using diet alone to improve blood sugar control and remodel the body “by re-partitioning energy away from metabolically harmful lipid stores,” said Barbara Gower, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Nutrition Sciences.

W. Timothy Garvey, MD, Butterworth Professor of Medicine in the Department of Nutrition Sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, was chosen to receive the Master of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinology (AACE) award. The MACE award is the highest honor to be awarded by AACE, the country’s leading professional organization of clinical endocrinologists.

In this episode, Andrew Butler, Ph.D., dean, UAB School of Health Professions, sits with W. Timothy Garvey, M.D., the Butterworth Endowed Professor in Nutrition Sciences and director of the UAB Diabetes Research Center. The two discuss his 4+ decades of studying obesity, diabetes, and more. Dr. Garvey talks about his "complication-centered" path of study, changing how the world defined obesity, and he gives his best advice to those struggling with weight - advice that may surprise you.

Amy Goss, Ph.D., assistant professor in the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Department of Nutrition Sciences, has received a $3 million R01 grant to implement a family-based diet intervention to treat fatty liver disease and obesity in adolescents.

For decades, Americans have fought a losing battle with obesity. Between 1960 and 2010, the prevalence of adult obesity in the United States nearly tripled, to 36 percent from 13 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Editor's Note: The information published in this story is accurate at the time of publication. Always refer to uab.edu/uabunited for UAB's current guidelines and recommendations relating to COVID-19.

Media contacts: Jeff Hansen and Savannah Koplon

Use of the diabetes drug metformin — before a diagnosis of COVID-19 — is associated with a threefold decrease in mortality in COVID-19 patients with Type 2 diabetes, according to a racially diverse study at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Diabetes is a significant comorbidity for COVID-19. 

Type 1 diabetes, or T1D, results from the autoimmune destruction of the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas. People with T1D require exogenous insulin and suffer swings in the levels of glucose in the blood that impact life expectancy and increase risks of cardiovascular disease, neuropathies and kidney failure.

Type 1 diabetes, or T1D, is an autoimmune disease in which the body’s immune cells — led by inflammatory macrophages — attack and destroy the beta cells of the pancreas that produce insulin.

A new study, published in Nutrition and Metabolism, from researchers with the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Nutrition Obesity Research Center observed improvements in body composition, fat distribution and metabolic health in response to an eight-week, very low-carbohydrate diet.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham and Southern Research have discovered a new drug candidate that offers a major advance in the treatment  for diabetes. 

A new study from researchers with the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Department of Nutrition Sciences suggests consumption of a moderately carbohydrate-restricted diet may result in decreased fatty liver tissue, as well as improvements in body composition and insulin resistance, in adolescents with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

UAB is a unique place, says Barbara Gower, Ph.D., professor and vice chair for Research in the School of Health Professions Department of Nutrition Sciences. But not just because the university brought in nearly $300 million in NIH funding this past year, or because our orthopaedic surgeons offer total knee replacements without an overnight hospital stay for some patients.

Valene Garr Barry, a graduate student pursuing a doctoral degree in the UAB School of Health Professions' Department of Nutrition Sciences and a pre-doctoral fellow of the Nutrition Obesity Research Center, was honored with the President’s Diversity Champion Award Feb. 21. The annual award recognizes employees, students and organizations that have helped create a more culturally diverse, inclusive university community through their achievements.

A recent study found that people of Mexican background are more likely to be at risk for Type 2 diabetes than other Hispanic/Latino background groups. The study, which was led by Bertha Hidalgo, Ph.D., a professor of epidemiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health, examined variants — alterations to the DNA sequence — of the SLC16A11 gene in six different Hispanic and Latino background groups: Mexican, South American, Central American, Dominican, Puerto Rican and Cuban. The study was published in Scientific Reports.

UAB Scholar to Received Honor during Obesity Week

W. Timothy Garvey, MD is the recipient of the 2017 Master of the American Board of Obesity Medicine award, presented to a physician who has made significant contributions to the science, practice and/or advancement of obesity medicine. Dr. Garvey is Professor of Medicine and Chair of the Department of Nutrition Sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham will launch the UAB Strategically Focused Obesity Research Center with a grant from the American Heart Association for $3.7 million over the next four years. The UAB SFOC is one of four sites in the AHA’s Strategically Focused Obesity Research Network that will work together to advance the field of obesity research.

Mohammad Khaled, Ph.D., has been awarded a Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Award to develop and improve research and teaching efforts in India related to Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Khaled, professor emeritus in the UAB Department of Nutrition Sciences, will collaborate with the Department of Physiology at the University of Calcutta, India, to look at Type 2 diabetes mellitus specifically due to Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infections which are highly prevalent among Indian populations. This expands research Khaled conducted while a professor at UAB.