San Raffaele opens the Center of Excellence for Metabolic Health

The Ircss San Raffaele Hospital opens the Center of Excellence for Metabolic Health, a structure that deals with problems of obesity and overweight, glucose intolerance and metabolic liver diseases, from diabetes to arterial hypertension.

This structure arises from the continuous expansion, in Italy and around the world, of metabolic syndromes and diseases: from type 2 diabetes to dysglycemia, from dyslipidemia to arterial hypertension and metabolic liver disease. These syndromes are frequently present in multiple associations with each other and are responsible for associated high cardiovascular risk and early mortality. 

The new drugs

In the last decade, new drugs called GLP-1 agonists have been created which, during clinical trials, have been shown to counteract all these pathological manifestations. These drugs, of which the most representative is Semaglutide, are much more effective in the treatment of type 2 diabetes, obesity and metabolic liver diseases, associated for the first time with a significant reduction in cardiovascular risk, with evident protective effects. cardiac and renal. The medicines act through innovative mechanisms of action and maintaining a very high safety profile. 

These latter certainties, especially those that combine weight reduction and associated cardiovascular risk, are considered revolutionary considering the social and economic burden that the combination of these diseases entails in contemporary society. 

Diabetes and San Raffaele

The Irccs San Raffaele Hospital has always invested considerable resources in research in the field of diabetes and related metabolic diseases. In 2007, in this regard, it created the Diabetes Research Institute, an example of a scientific institute capable of integrating basic research with clinical trials and daily care practice, thus applying a research model that is among the best in the world. 

In the various areas of metabolic diseases, the San Raffaele Hospital treats between 87 and 94 thousand patients every year, thus becoming one of the major Italian centers for the treatment of these pathologies and one of the most qualified research centres.