From 7 to 9 March, ciTechCare was represented at the 20th Portuguese Diabetes Congress by Marlene Lages, PhD fellow at ciTechCare, who joined the healthcare professionals and researchers to learn and discuss the challenges of diabetes in Portugal and worldwide.

In this edition, the PhD fellow presented the poster entitled “Relationship between body mass index, intake of vitamins A, C, E and B6 and lung function in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease” and moderated a poster session in the field of Fundamental Research.

As some studies have shown a beneficial association between increased dietary intake of vitamins A, C, E and B6 with both lung function and body mass index (BMI), this study aimed to relate the dietary intake of vitamins A, C, E and B6 with the BMI and lung function in people with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

The results from the work presented by Marlene Lages and co-produced by researchers from ciTechCare and the Health & Technology Research Centre, showed that the intake of vitamins A and E seems to be compromised in people with COPD (regardless of the BMI value) while the values of vitamin B6 are decreased in overweight/obese people.

This study was co-produced by ciTechCare researchers Sofia Flora, Nádia Hipólito, Maria Guarino and Joana Cruz, Tiago Novo, researcher at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon and the Health & Technology Research Centre of the School of Health Technology of Lisbon and Marisa Cebola, researcher at the Health & Technology Research Centre of the School of Health Technology of Lisbon, as well.

The congress provided an important update of knowledge in the field of diabetes and enabled a discussion of what such be done to prevent, diagnose and control this disease.

João Raposo, President of the Diabetology Society, states that “diabetes is one of the greatest threats to the sustainability of the NHS and the country’s economy” and that is necessary that companies have some responsibility in promoting a healthy diet and physical exercise. “There are examples of companies where this happens, but our problem is that we jump from pilot to pilot project without ever being able to scale to a national project,” he said.