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Diabetes Prevention (cont.)

Is there anything that can help to prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes?

One of the most important factors in the development of diabetes is genetics (which we have no control over). However, there are things in our environment we can control to lower our personal risk of developing diabetes. And, frankly, none of it is magic.

Exercise

Yes folks - it is true. Exercise is good for you. When adjusted for family history, the benefits of exercise can be broken down based on previous studies; for every 500 kcal burned weekly through exercise, there is a 6% decrease in relative risk for the development of diabetes. This data is from a study done in men who were followed over a period of 10 years. The study also notes a greater benefit in men who were heavier at baseline. There have been similar reports on the effects of exercise in women.

Exercise is thought to be a major determinant of insulin sensitivity in muscle tissue. By increasing exercise, the body uses insulin more efficiently - for up to 70 hours after the exercise period has occurred. Thus exercising 3-4 times per week would be beneficial in most people.

The same benefits are seen when looking specifically at patients with impaired glucose tolerance/impaired fasting glucose. When diet and exercise are used as tools in this population over a six year study and compared to a control group, glucose tolerance improves by about 76% compared to deterioration in 67% of the control group. The exercise group also had a lesser rate of progression to type 2 diabetes.

It should be noted that a lot of the benefit of exercise occurs independent of weight loss. However, when combined with weight loss, the benefits increase substantially.

Weight Loss

In patients at risk for diabetes, weight loss can improve insulin sensitivity, delay, and even prevent progression to type 2 diabetes. In patients with overt diabetes, weight loss can play a tremendous role in improving blood sugar control.

Two large studies - one in Finland and the other one U.S. (the Diabetes Prevention Program- DPP) have shown the benefit of weight loss in diabetes prevention. In the Finnish study, more than 500 men and women with impaired glucose tolerance were assigned to a control group or an exercise/weight loss group. By the end of the study, the weight loss group had lost about 8 pounds, and the control group about 2 pounds. The weight loss group had significantly less participants develop diabetes than the control group.

The DPP study showed a similar result. In this study, there was also a group taking metformin (Glucophage) as a preventative measure. At the end of the study, the lifestyle group actually did better at prevention of diabetes than those taking metformin. In fact, the study was stopped early, because the benefit of weight loss (the weight loss group lost about 15 pounds on average and kept it off) was so dramatic. That just about says it all!

Smoking

Smoking more than 20 cigarettes a day can increase your risk of developing diabetes to more than three times that of nonsmokers. The exact reason for this isn't well understood. It may be that smoking directly decreases the body's ability to utilize insulin. Moreover, it has been observed that after smoking, blood sugar levels increase. Finally, there is also an association between smoking and body fat distribution - smoking tends to encourage the "apple" shape - which is a risk factor for diabetes.

So.....that's one more reason to quit, right?

Nuts

In as study of over 83,000 women, nuts (and peanut butter) consumption seemed to show some protective effect against the development of diabetes. Women who have more than five one-ounce servings of nuts a week lowered their risk of developing diabetes compared to women who consumed no nuts at all.



Next: Are there medications that can help to prevent type 2 diabetes? »

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