Lifestyle changes may cure some diabetics

Lifestyle changes may cure some diabetics

Thursday, Dec 27, 2012
Reuters
One in nine people with diabetes saw his blood sugar levels dip back to normal or prediabetic levels after a year on an intensive diet and exercise programme, a new study has found.
 
Prediabetes is the condition in which blood sugar is elevated but not to the level of diabetes.
 
Complete remission of type 2 diabetes is still very rare, researchers said. But they added that the new study can give people with the disease hope that they can stop medication and probably lower their risk of diabetes-related complications by making lifestyle changes.
Dr Edward Gregg, the lead author of the report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States, said: "The long-term assumption is that once you have diabetes, there's no turning back and there's no remission or cure."
 
The research "is a reminder that adopting a healthy diet, physically active lifestyle and maintaining a healthy weight are going to help manage people's diabetes better", he said.
 
The study by his team could not prove the experimental programme - which included weekly group and individual counselling sessions for six months, followed by less frequent visits - was directly responsible for blood sugar improvements.
 
The original goal of the research was to look at whether that intervention lowered participants' risk of heart disease. So far, it has not.
 
But the diabetes improvements are in line with better weight loss and fitness among people in the programme compared with those in another group who went to only a few annual counselling sessions, the researchers reported last week in the Journal Of The American Medical Association.
 
The new study included 4,503 diabetic patients who were also overweight or obese.
 
People randomly assigned to the intensive programme received diet and exercise counselling and were given the goal of consuming 1,200 to 1,800 calories per day and increasing physical activity to just under three hours per week.
 
After one year, 11.5 per cent of them had at least partial diabetes remission, meaning that without medication, their blood sugar levels were no longer above the diabetes threshold.
Just 2 per cent of participants in the non-intervention group saw their diabetes improve significantly.
 
People who had had diabetes for fewer years were more likely to see improvements in their blood sugar levels, as were those who lost more weight or had stronger fitness gains during the study.
 
However, fewer than one-third of the people whose diabetes went into remission during the programme managed to keep their blood sugar levels down for at least four years, the researchers found.
 
Dr David Arterburn, from Group Health Research Institute in Seattle, who co-wrote an editorial published with the new study, said anyone with diabetes - or at high risk of the disease - should consider either lifestyle interventions or surgery, if they are eligible, to reduce future health risks.
 
Some studies of weight-loss surgery, for instance, have found that two-thirds of people who start out with diabetes experience complete remission, he said.