RSS
Home
Diabetes is preventable: Ten year study conclusive. Lifestyle change works and is better than drugs
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Two of the world's leading medical journals (New England Journal of Medicine [NEJM] and the British medical journal The Lancet) have published the results of a large study conducted over a ten year period. The NEJM reported on the first three years of the study in 2002. The Lancet has now confirmed the lasting value of these interventions over a ten year period, today, 10/29/2009. Reported in Physicians First Watch today.
"The benefits of lifestyle intervention or metformin for preventing the development of diabetes in high-risk adults can persist for 10 years, according to a follow-up report from the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) trial published online in Lancet. {Metformin is one of the most commonly used drugs in the initial treatment of diabetes.)
"Researchers examined longer-term follow-up data on some 2800 high-risk adults who had been randomized to intensive lifestyle intervention, or metformin, or placebo in the DPP trial. At the end of that period (roughly 3 years, reported on in 2002 in the NEJM), both lifestyle intervention and metformin had significantly lowered diabetes incidence relative to placebo (by 58% and 31%, respectively).
"Over a median of 10 years' total follow-up, benefits of the interventions persisted — overall diabetes incidence was reduced by 34% in the lifestyle group and by 18% in the metformin group, compared to placebo."
"Type 2 diabetes affects approximately 25 million adults in the United States. Some risk factors--elevated blood sugar, overweight, and a sedentary lifestyle--are potentially reversible. We tested a lifestyle-intervention program or the administration of metformin, to prevent the development of diabetes. More than 3000 non-diabetic persons with these criteria, were treated with metformin (850 mg twice daily), or a lifestyle-modification program with the goals of at least a 7 percent weight loss, and at least 150 minutes of physical activity per week. The mean age was 51 years, and the mean body-mass index (BMI)) was 34.0 [overweight or obese]; 68 percent were women, and 45 percent were members of minority groups."
Conclusion: Achievable life-style interventions significantly reduce the risk of Diabetes Type 2 (twice as well as drug treatment).
Physicians First Watch 10/29/2009 online.
NEJM 2/7/2002
The Lancet Online 10/29/2009
