Lifestyle Interventions Hold Diabetes at Bay
Reported May 28, 2008
(Ivanhoe Newswire) Teaching people with higher than normal blood sugar levels how to eat better and exercise more can significantly influence their risk of developing diabetes.
In a study conducted among nearly 600 people in China over a 20 year period, investigators found those who took part in group-based diet and exercise programs were not only less likely to develop the disease but also enjoyed more years without diabetes before coming down with the condition.
The investigation was a joint project between Chinese researchers and those from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The participants were first enrolled in 1986. All had impaired glucose tolerance, but the condition had yet to progress to full diabetes. The subjects were assigned to either a control group, a diet group, an exercise group, or a group that focused on both diet and exercise.
By the 20-year follow up, 93 percent of the people in the control group had diabetes, compared to 80 percent of those who took part in one of the intervention groups. Intervention group participants who did end up with diabetes got the disease an average of 3.6 years later than those in the control group.
Writing in an accompanying editorial, investigators from Finland suggest more should be done to offer lifestyle invention programs, both to people at risk for the disease and people in the general population. We propose that lifestyle intervention should start much earlier, when people are normoglycaemic, to achieve true primary prevention of type 2 diabetes and its main consequence, cardiovascular disease. In this regard, both population-based strategies and those targeted at high-risk groups should be applied.
SOURCE: The Lancet, published online May 22, 2008