FEBRUARY 2007

EVEN AS EXPERTS are sounding the alarm about a global diabetes epidemic—predicting surge to 380 million diabetics, 7% of the world’s population, by 2025—a new study offers hope that simple lifestyle changes can reduce your risk of joining that number. According to Finnish research published in The Lancet, even people at high risk for type 2 diabetes can improve their odds of escaping the disease with weight loss, diet changes and exercise.

“From a public health point of view,” said lead researcher Jaako Tuomilehto, MD, of the National Health Institute in Helsinki, “there is an important message: An intensive lifestyle intervention lasting for a limited time can yield long-term benefits in reducing the risk of type-2 diabetes.”

This extended followup of the Finnish Diabetes Prevention Study involved 172 men and 350 women, all middle-aged, overweight and suffering from impaired glucose tolerance. Without intervention, roughly half of all people with impaired glucose tolerance develop diabetes within 10 years. The researchers randomly divided subjects into an intervention group, which received intensive diet and exercise counseling over a fouryear period, and a control group. Goals for the intervention group included weight loss, reduced intake of total fat and saturated fat, increased intake of dietary fiber, and increased physical activity. At the end of the intervention period, participants who were still free of diabetes were further followed up for an average of three years.

The intervention program resulted in sustained lifestyle changes and a reduction in type 2 diabetes incidence, which remained even after the individual lifestyle counseling was stopped. The degree of risk reduction was related to participants’ success in achieving the intervention goals. Overall, during the total followup period averaging seven years, the intervention group saw a 43% reduction in relative risk of diabetes. Even during the post-intervention followup, those who’d been counseled about lifestyle changes showed a 36% reduction in relative risk.

Although lifestyle changes alone can’t always prevent type 2 diabetes in all high-risk individuals, Dr. Tuomilehto added, improving weight and diet and increasing physical activity can still postpone the onset of the disease.