Lifestyle helps diabetes

DIABETES: Lifestyle changes seem as effective as most medications in staving off disease.

THE QUESTION: Weight loss, exercise and medication have been shown capable of delaying or preventing onset of diabetes. Might one method work better than others?

THIS STUDY reviewed data from 17 studies involving 8,048 people with impaired glucose tolerance (above-normal levels of glucose, or sugar, in the blood) who had been randomly assigned to take a diabetes drug or a placebo; to take a weight-loss drug or a placebo; to make lifestyle changes, which included various diet and exercise regimens as well as advice sessions; or to receive only the advice. Diabetes drugs included metformin, acarbose, glipizide and troglitazone; the weight-loss drug was orlistat. About 37 percent of the participants developed diabetes over a five-year period. People who made the lifestyle changes were 49 percent less likely to have diabetes diagnosed than were those who did not. The risk of developing the disease was reduced 30 percent for those who took a diabetes drug and 54 percent for people who took the weight-loss drug.

CAVEATS: Whether people in everyday life would follow the regimens as conscientiously as the study participants did is uncertain.

FIND THIS STUDY: Jan. 19 online edition of BMJ, available at www.bmj.com (click “Research”).

– The Washington Post

John V
John C. Vincent/CEO/The Opt.In Magic System
http://The-Way-To-Weight-Loss-blog.blogspot.com
http://The-Hair-Loss-Site.blogspot.com