Manage Type-2 Diabetes With Healthy Diet, Study Shows

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Intensive lifestyle change program yielded better results than support group

Recent study results from the Archives of Internal Medicine have shown that an intensive lifestyle change program can help patients with Type 2 diabetes lose weight and keep it off. The participants were also better able to control their blood glucose levels and reduced their risk for cardiovascular disease. The study consisted of over 5,000 overweight or obese people with a median age of 58.7 all of whom had Type 2 diabetes.

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Approximately half of the participants were assigned to a lifestyle intervention that aimed to lose 7% of overall weight the first year, to be maintained in following years. The other half joined a diabetes support group that met to talk about diet, exercise and social support 3 times per year.

Those in the lifestyle intervention group lost an average of 6.2% of their body weight while only 0.9% for those in the support group. The lifestyle intervention group also had more improvement in fitness, blood pressure, HDL cholesterol and blood glucose levels. Based on this and other similar study findings, Healthnews.com says, "Too often doctors rely on prescription medications to control diabetes when lifestyle changes would be more effective and produce a healthier individual."

Drew Carey has said that he no longer has symptoms of his type-2 diabetes since losing 80 lbs. He made a lifestyle change and now exercises and eats right. He told People magazine, "I like being skinny," said Carey. "I was sick of being fat on the camera. Really, I just got sick of it. Once I started losing weight, again, like once I started dropping a couple pant sizes, then it was easy 'cause once you see the results, then you don't wanna stop."