Losing a little weight within the first few years of a type 2 diabetes diagnosis may be all it takes to send it into remission, according to new research.
How much weight loss?
A team of scientists from Cambridge looked at the data from 867 men and women between the ages of 40 and 69 who had recently been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. They followed the volunteers for 5 years and found that about 30% of the participants were in remission by the end of the study. But why?
Men and women lost at least 10% of their body weight during the 5 years were twice as likely to experience remission at the follow-up compared to those who hadn’t lost any weight.
“We’ve known for some time now that it’s possible to send diabetes into remission using fairly drastic measures, such as intensive weight loss programs and extreme calorie restriction,” says the first author of the study Dr. Hajira Dambha-Miller. “[However,] these interventions can be very challenging to individuals and difficult to achieve. But our results suggest that it may be possible to get rid of diabetes, for at least 5 years, with a more modest weight loss of 10%. This will be more motivating and hence more achievable for many people.”
So, although type 2 diabetes is a chronic disease, it is possible to control and even reverse it with changes in diet and increases in exercise.
The results of the study were published in the journal Diabetic Medicine.
The future of diabetes treatment
The researchers have created something called the GLoW study (Glucose-Lowering through Weight management) to evaluate whether a tailored diabetes education and behavioral weight management program can better serve patients than the current education-only programs being offered in the UK.
Of course, the problem is global. Type 2 diabetes is a major issue in the United States, with more than 30 million people at risk for complications, such as hypertension, hyperglycemia, and vision problems.
