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Surgeon General Calls for National Effort to Combat Obesity Low-income Mothers Unconcerned About Children's Overweight Patients Follow Activity Advice Reducing Weight-gain Worries Helps Women Stop Smoking FDA Approves Adjustable Stomach Band to Treat Severe Obesity Partnership for Healthy Weight Management Updated WIN Publications Materials From Other Organizations Meeting Notes WIN NIDDK WIN Notes is produced by the Weight-control Information Network (WIN). Questions or comments should be referred to the editor, Weight-control Information Network 1 WIN WAY BETHESDA, MD 20892-3665 TEL (202) 828-1025 FAX (202) 828-1028 |
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WINTER
2001/2002
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Lifestyle Changes Help Prevent Diabetes
Researchers ended the study 1 year early in light of its impressive results, which were unveiled at a meeting of NIDDKs Diabetes Mellitus Interagency Coordinating Committee and DHHS news conference on August 8, 2001. The 3-year study followed 3,234 adults with impaired glucose tolerancethe inability to process glucose efficiently resulting in elevated blood sugar levels, a condition that often precedes type 2 diabetes. All study participants were overweight or obese, with an average body mass index (BMI) of 34. Forty-five percent were from minority groups that have particularly high levels of type 2 diabetesAfrican Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, and American Indians. Participants ranged in age from 25 to 85 years, with an average age of 51. "Lifestyle intervention worked as well in men and women and in all the ethnic groups."Study
participants were randomized to one of three groups: the intensive lifestyle
intervention group; the drug treatment group, which received the glucose-lowering
drug metformin; and the placebo The lifestyle intervention group met the study goal of a loss of 7 percent of body weightor roughly 15 poundsin the first year, and maintained an average 5 percent loss over the course of the study. Fourteen percent of lifestyle participants developed diabetes by the end of the study, as compared to 22 percent in the metformin group and 29 percent in the placebo group. Lifestyle intervention worked as well in men and women and in all the ethnic groups, said David Nathan, M.D., study chairman and director of the General Clinical Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. It also worked well in people age 60 and older, who have a nearly 20 percent prevalence of diabetes, reducing their development of diabetes by 71 percent. Metformin was not effective in this age group, nor in those who were less overweight. A recently published study from Finland found the same 58 percent risk reduction among individuals who made intensive diet and physical activity changes. Whereas the Finnish study followed a fairly homogenous European populace, the DPP demonstrated the effectiveness of lifestyle intervention throughout Americas diverse population, among whom the prevalence of type 2 diabetes has tripled over the last 30 years. The long-term effectiveness of lifestyle changes in delaying the onset of diabetes is uncertain. Nevertheless, every year a person can live free of diabetes means an added year of life free of the pain, disability, and medical costs incurred by this disease, said Allen Spiegel, M.D., director of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), which sponsored the DPP. The DPP findings represent a major step toward the goal of containing and ultimately reversing the epidemic of type 2 diabetes in this country. The results of the study were published in the February 7, 2002 New England Journal of Medicine. s
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