Henning Beck-Nielsen resigns as chief physician and professor

Tomorrow (September 8, 2017) a symposium is being held at University of Southern Denmark in honour of Henning Beck-Nielsen, who as of September 1, 2017, resigned his position as professor at University of Southern Denmark in Odense, and as chief physician at Department of Endocrinology, Odense University Hospital. He will, however, remain professor with special tasks (in Danish, MSO professor) at University of Southern Denmark. 

TAKES PRIDE IN ALLOCATING TIME FOR PATIENT CONTACT

As a research scientist Henning Beck-Nielsen has achieved many significant results within diabetes research, but he also takes pride in allocating time for patient contact as he believes – and has later shown – that the gains in terms of teaching diabetes patients to take care of themselves are substantial.

Therefore, among others, he has resently written the book “The fear of hypoglycaemia is always there” about the fear of low blood sugar, where the description of how patients can manage their own disease and its physical and psychological burdens  is emphasised.

Henning Beck-Nielsen previously headed the Department of Endocrinology and its research unit, but he now focuses on his own research and his duties as chairman of the board and head of the two research projects: Danish Centre for Strategic Research in Type 2 Diabetes (DD2), and the Danish Diabetes Academy.  

Danish Diabetes Academy, whose main task is to train future diabetes researchers and thereby future diabetes physicians, is an international research network established through a grant of more than 200 million DKK (EUR 27,059,485) from the Novo Nordisk Foundation.

DD2 was established through grants from the Danish Council for Strategic Research, the Region of Southern Denmark and Novo Nordisk. One of the first results of DD2 shows that T2D is not only one disease, as previously believed, but at least ten different diseases that require different treatment modalities.

TYPE 1 AND TYPE 2 DIABETES ARE NOT CAUSED BY THE SAME DISORDER

Henning Beck-Nielsen was among the first worldwide to discover that T1D and T2D are not caused by the same disorder, i.e. lack of the hormone insulin. On the contrary, you develop T2D because your body is not able to use insulin the right way, and sugar therefore accumulates in your blood. This understanding of insulin resistance has been essential to the modern treatment of T2D, which every 20th person worldwide suffers from.

He has developed the so-called Funen model for diabetes treatment that has shown to improve patients’ quality of life and life expectancy. The basic idea is to react very early to the complications of the disease, i.e. through thorough education of both patients with diabetes and health professionals at hospital “diabetes schools”. This system has, by the way, become a role model for patient schools within a number of other disease areas.

“It is ten times more expensive for society to treat a diabetes patient at the hospital than to prevent and treat on an outpatient basis. It is therefore in everybody’s interest to make the diagnosis as early as possible to avoid serious complications such as blood clots, amputations and blindness. Unfortunately, many Danish people discover too late that they have diabetes” (Henning Beck-Nielsen)

HIS LATEST RESEARCH BASED ON THE FUNEN MODEL

His latest research has shown that one of the effects of the Funen model is that the number of diabetes-related amputations has decreased by 10-15% annually during the last 16 years, when the treatment ideas based on the Funen model have been realised.

Henning Beck-Nielsen has conducted research in diabetes since 1974, and his results have been of vital importance to our knowledge about T2D. Among others, he was the first to show that obesity, fatty foods and lack of exercise play an important role for the development of diabetes.

SCIENTIFIC PRIZES AND AWARDS

Henning Beck-Nielsen has received a number of scientific prizes and awards, among others the two most prestious awards in Denmark, namely, the Hagedorn Prize and the Novo Nordisk Award.

As a recognition of his age long research effort and the fact that he was among the first in the world to discover the significant difference between type 1 and type 2 diabetes, he has also received the German Paul Langerhans Medal. The German Diabetes Association that instituted this award gave the award to Beck-Nielsen for his outstanding contribution to scientific diabetes research that among other things has made people understand the reason why some people have a predisposition to develop T2D.

The prize is a recognition of Beck-Nielsens age long research effort and the fact that he was among the first in the world to discover the significant difference between type 1 and type 2 diabetes, 

HENNING BECK-NIELSEN'S SCIENTIFIC PRODUCTION

Publications and citations
A total of 487 original papers, including 30 book chapters. Web of Science indicates 627 publications, including abstracts, cited more than 16,500 times. h-index 67.

Scientific impact
Just to mention a few Henning Beck-Nielsen:

• was among the first to describe the insulin receptor in humans
• was among the first to describe insulin resistance in humans
• was the first to show that insulin resistance in subjects with T2D is due to reduced glycogen synthase activity – this has been confirmed in numerous papers and is now a fact
• was the first to show that insulin resistance can be treated by diet
• described together with Norwegian researchers the first insulin receptor defect inducing lipodystrophy and diabetes (New England Journal of Medicine)

Additionally, Henning Beck-Nielsen and his research group were the first to show that insulin resistance is already present in relatives, who thereby are more at risk for developing T2D. This is of great importance for our understanding of the natural history of the disease and T2D screening. On this basis, screenings are already performed in the United States. 

IN SUMMARY

Regarding the pathophysiology of T2D it can be concluded that the above-mentioned papers have focused on causes and treatment, and today the disease is therefore regarded as a serious disease and treated accordingly. This was not the case when Henning Beck-Nielsen started his research in 1974. A paper in the Lancet showed that the improved treatment has also resulted in a reduced mortality of T2D in Denmark.

Based on the pathophysiological knowledge of insulin resistance in skeletal muscle in liver and impaired beta cell function, Henning Beck-Nielsen and his research group have developed a new concept for treatment of T2D: triple therapy that may almost normalise diurnal blood glucose values.