A 15-year international study , recently published in The Lancet, states that walking 150 minutes every week and 5-7% weight loss over six months to a year in case of obese people, along with an improved lifestyle, reduce diabetes incidence by 27%. The most widely used drug for the disease, metformin, worked only on 18%. The first of its kind study , because of its long duration, was conducted on people who were at a very high risk of developing diabetes.
"Although structured diet programmes are difficult to maintain over long periods, it is encouraging to note that nutrient intake among participants in the lifestyle intervention was maintained for up to 9 years," said Dr Anoop Misra, a leading endocrinologist and chairman at Fortis C-DOC. Misra was part of the team that conducted the study. He said the results of the group with supervised protocol were much better than the one on placebo, which received no supervision.
"It is important to start intensive exercise in the initial months. It is found that those who start structured exercises and diet control in the early years are more protected than those who begin late," Dr Misra said. The study also found that women run a higher risk of organ damage even at a pre-diabetic stage if they are vulnerable to the disease. In women, insulin resistance and development of diabetes are affected and often complicated by several factors, such as weight gain during pregnancy and their inability to reduce it afterwards, menopause, and social factors preventing adequate physical activity.
However, researchers also found that results during the first 10 years of the study were more encouraging than in the final four to five years, when the incidence of diabetes increased significantly , even among those who were on structured lifestyle interventions and using metformin.
"Studies of long duration often reveal surprises and disappointments. For example, the new data show that the benefits of lifestyle modification have become lower than that reported in the last follow-up (diabetes incidence rates 34% at 10year follow-up) and are now closer to those seen with the use of metformin," Dr Misra said.
He said, a limited study of the kind on the Indian population is also on its way.
Diabetes has emerged as a major disease burden for India over the past two decades and is now among the top ten reasons for various disorders among both men and women.
