A NEW centre built at a cost of £100,000 and which could help prevent diabetes and obesity, opens on Friday in the Fens. The Medical Research Council in Cambridge will unveil their newly refurbished MRC Epidemiology Unit Clinical Research Facility, as par

A NEW centre built at a cost of £100,000 and which could help prevent diabetes and obesity, opens on Friday in the Fens.

The Medical Research Council in Cambridge will unveil their newly refurbished MRC Epidemiology Unit Clinical Research Facility, as part of its scientific research into the links between lifestyle and health.

Dr Liz Robin, Director of Public Health for Cambridgeshire will open the unit, based in the North Cambridgeshire Hospital in Wisbech. The unit will assess volunteers in the MRC Fenland Study, a population based research project to help to prevent diabetes and obesity.

The study will investigate the interaction between genetic and lifestyle factors in determining obesity, diabetes and related metabolic disorders that are currently a major health concern regionally and nationally.

The opening coincides with the recruitment of the 500th Wisbech area volunteer to The Fenland Study which will eventually include 5000 members of the public. Professor Nick Wareham, Director of the MRC Epidemiology Unit and leader of the study said: "Our new facility will provide enhanced opportunities for carrying out ground-breaking research into diabetes and obesity, right in the heart of the wider community

"We have been very pleased with the response to our invitations through GP surgeries for volunteers, but we need many more."

Professor Wareham added: "I am convinced that this research will lead us to important discoveries about the links between lifestyle and health and how we can help to prevent these debilitating diseases."

All people who were born between 1950 and 1975 and who are registered at surgeries in Cambridgeshire are being invited to take part in the Fenland study. Participants will be asked to make a single visit to the new research facility in Wisbech where they will have a very thorough health check. This will include measurements of their metabolic health, diet and other lifestyle patterns, body composition and fitness and physical activity levels.

People wanting to know more about The Fenland Study, should contact the MRC team on Freephone 0800 085 6183

FACT FILE

Fenland area has substantially greater levels of obesity among adults (approximately 28.8%) than the national average for England (22.7%)

The prevalence of diabetes in Fenland is 4.2% compared with the national England average of 3.3%