They Just Seem To Go Together: Weight And Diabetes

Filed in archive Treatment on August 31, 2006

No matter how many groundbreaking drug treatments appear, doctors still push the number one treatment and prevention for Type 2 diabetes: weight control.

This highly informative new study uses new methods to reach the same conclusions: that obesity is a primary factor is the development of Type 2 diabetes, and that weight loss is a primary 'cure.'

Weight loss is the key factor in reducing diabetes risk for high-risk, overweight individuals, a new study shows.

Participants in the intensive lifestyle intervention portion of the diabetes prevention program, which involved cutting fat and calories with the goal of reducing by weight by 7 percent, reduced their likelihood of developing diabetes by 58 percent over a 3-year period, report Dr. Richard F. Hamman at the program's coordinating center at George Washington University in Rockville, Maryland and colleagues.

At the beginning of the study all of the participants were overweight and had an impaired ability to process glucose, putting them at high risk of developing diabetes.

Weight loss was the most important factor in preventing diabetes, while cutting fat and exercising helped participants lose weight, and exercise helped them keep the weight off, the researchers found.

Are you convinced?