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Diabetes Prevention Study

If you have no signs of it, what diabetes prevention can you take to ensure that you don't develop the disease and its associated complications. Two new studies give insight into preventing diabetes, which is a major risk for heart attacks, strokes, and numerous other complications.

More than 40 million Americans face a high risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The disease is now seen in epidemic numbers especially because Americans are simply getting fatter. But there are important nuances when it comes to preventing diabetes even before any evidence of it appears, such as choosing the right blood pressure medicine.

These are factors that many people don’t take into consideration. "My doctor did tell me I was a borderline recurring diabetic. The doctor said I just had to lose weight, which is easier said than done." But the weight loss programs that help patients like Sharon Shepard lose weight, eat better and exercise, are effective at staving off diabetes.

Now, two new studies in the Annals of Internal Medicine show that lifestyle changes can help keep non-diabetic patients or those with pre-diabetes from developing frank diabetes, which happens to almost half of them within ten years.

In one study, a one-on-one weight loss and exercise program substantially delayed the onset of diabetes in people with pre-diabetes on average by 11 years, compared to just three years for the group taking the diabetes medicine glucophage or metformin.

The lifestyle intervention included brisk walking for 30 minutes five days a week, lowered fat and calorie intake, and a weight-reduction goal of 7 percent of body weight. The study impresses diabetes expert Dr. Marian Benerji of SUNY Downstate Medical Center.

"With this rather minor amount of weight loss they ended up with a tremendous improvement in outcomes and they had about a 58% decrease in the development of diabetes compared to kind of an ordinary lifestyle." says Dr. Benerji. The second study looked at men even before they developed diabetes, and whether aggressive dietary, exercise, and smoking advice helped in preventing diabetes.

"Obesity and inactivity and smoking naturally are three things that create most of the world's chronic diseases. And they're really global problems." Dr. Benerji states. The study found that this aggressive program helped in diabetes prevention for men without pre-diabetes, but only for men who do not smoke.

In fact, while there was a significant 18 percent reduction among the non-smokers, there was a 26 percent increased risk among those men who did smoke.

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