Spending time in a cold environment brings considerable improvement in patients with type 2 diabetes, researchers have discovered.

Researchers at Maastricht university put eight patients in a temperature of 14 to 15 degrees for several hours a day, broadcaster Nos reports.

Their muscles reacted much better to insuline in the cold than under normal temperatures. Sensitivity for insuline increased by 43%.

The researchers say the result is ‘unexpected, spectacular and very favourable’, the Nos says.

More research is now needed to see what are the long-term effects. For instance, to discover what exactly happens in the muscles to cause the increased insuline sensitivity and whether this can be achieved by other means.

The number of people suffering from diabetes in the Netherlands has shot up over the past 13 years, almost entirely due to a rise in cases of type 2 diabetes.