Diabetes sufferers may soon be able to inhale life-saving drugs rather than having to give themselves several daily injections, according to research published today.

An American study of a new inhaler device for insulin found that it worked as well as the traditional method of injections.

The findings could offer hope to diabetes sufferers who have to go through the discomfort and inconvenience of two or three daily jabs to maintain their blood glucose levels.

Around 1.4 million people in the UK are diagnosed with diabetes. An estimated million more have the condition but are not aware of it.

Half a million diabetics have to give themselves daily injections of insulin to maintain their glucose levels every day.

Diabetes sufferers cannot convert the glucose in their blood into energy because the hormone insulin is either not produced or does not work properly.

Sufferers say the gruelling regime affects their everyday life, social relations and even their own self-image.

Insulin inhalers have been tried from as early as 1925, but the devices have not been effective enough in getting the insulin into the body's system.

Now a US company has developed an inhaler which uses a new dry-powder form of insulin.

Researchers from the University of Miami studied 73 patients with insulin-dependent Type 1 diabetes, the most severe form of the illness.

Half were given the new inhaler to use before meals - when injections are normally administered - while the others stuck with their normal round of daily jabs.

The findings, published in the medical journal The Lancet, found that the inhaler worked as well as the needle in maintaining blood glucose levels and preventing sufferers from falling into potentially-fatal diabetic comas.

Professor Edwin Gale, professor of diabetic medicine at the University of Bristol, said larger studies were needed to prove that the inhaler was as effective as injections.

But he said: 'Whatever the practical limitations of inhaled insulin, the deeper meaning that this report will hold for many people should not be overlooked.

'Diabetes is intangible yet all-pervasive, and alters the whole context within which an individual lives his or her life.

'For people trapped within this subculture, the needle is not just an irksome necessity but a symbol of their bondage to an invisible parasite.'

A spokesman from the British Diabetic Association welcomed the news.

'This is great news for diabetics, but people should remember there are still further trials to be done.

'It will still be several years before an inhaler of this kind could become available.'