Diabetes: Preventing Diabetes With Diet And Exercise

Several countries have conducted major clinical trials which show how people with glucose intolerance can reduce their risk of developing type 2 diabetes by way of healthy lifestyle interventions. However, the long-term efficacy of such interventions have remained in question.

Results from a recently concluded Chinese study (published in a Diabetes Special Issue of The Lancet)  indicate that group-based healthy lifestyle interventions of diet and exercise over a duration of six years may prevent/delay [type 2 diabetes] for up to 14 years following the intervention.

"This study has shown that...group-based interventions targeting lifestyle changes such as diet and exercise produce a durable and long-lasting reduction in incidence of type 2 diabetes..." conclude the authors.

"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," adds Dr Jaana Lindström (National Public Health Institute, Helsinki and University of Helsinki, Finland) and Professor Matti Uusitupa (University of Kuopio, Finland).

(Read full article in Medical News Today)