October 29th, 2009

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that a Pitt program that studied individuals who were prime candidates for diabetes showed that lifestyle changes were actually twice as effective as medicine in delaying and preventing diabetes.

“The study, known as DPPOS, puts science behind Mr. Held’s success. For 10 years, researchers tracked 2,766 people nationwide with pre-diabetes — a metabolic condition featuring slightly elevated blood-glucose levels that often serves as a precursor to type 2 diabetes.

DPPOS proved that intensive lifestyle changes resulting in even modest weight loss reduced development of type 2 diabetes by 34 percent, compared with people at high risk for diabetes who only took a placebo and didn’t alter lifestyle.

The study is published online today in the The Lancet, a medical journal.

Overall results show that participants randomly assigned to make lifestyle changes had more favorable cardiovascular risk factors including lower blood pressure and triglyceride levels, despite taking fewer drugs to control heart disease risk.

The group that took metformin prevented the onset of type 2 by 18 percent, compared with the control group on a placebo. That means lifestyle changes were twice as effective as medicine in delaying or preventing diabetes.

The study also concluded that participants who underwent positive lifestyle changes delayed type 2 diabetes by about four years, compared with the control group. Benefits of intensive lifestyle changes were most pronounced in the elderly, with people 60 or older reducing the rate of developing type 2 diabetes by half.”