People with prediabetes can prevent the development of type 2 diabetes by losing weight and managing their blood sugar well, new evidence has underscored.
Latest research conducted at the Institute for Diabetes Research and Metabolic Diseases of Helmholtz Munich at the University of Tübingen has found that weight loss and good blood sugar management can protect people with prediabetes from developing type 2 diabetes.
According to the researchers, the normalisation of blood sugar levels in prediabetes should be included as a therapeutic goal in guidelines on the prevention of type 2 diabetes.
Lead author Reiner Jumpertz-von Schwartzenberg said: “In order to prevent the development of the disease, early therapies are already important in the prediabetes stages, a preliminary stage of type 2 diabetes.
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“Our results can be used to change the goals of these early lifestyle interventions in order to reduce the overall development rates of diabetes.”
Guidance from the American Diabetes Association (ADA) outlines that weight loss is key for preventing type 2 diabetes.
However, this study has highlighted the importance of both weight loss and good blood sugar management when it comes to preventing prediabetes from developing to type 2 diabetes.
During the trial, they examined the health data of more than 450 adults, all of whom have prediabetes and had lost at least seven per cent of their body weight by following a one-year lifestyle programme. A total of 114 of the participants put their prediabetes into remission during the trial.
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Fellow author Andreas Birkenfeld said: “In the group with additional remission of prediabetes, there was even no type 2 diabetes at all in the first four years after the lifestyle intervention.
“In the group that had ‘only’ lost weight, however, some study participants did develop manifest diabetes during that period.”
Jumpertz-von Schwartzenberg and Birkenfeld concluded: “Our results show that remission of prediabetes brings a further significant benefit in addition to weight reduction.
“We therefore advocate that the goal of prediabetes remission should be included in the objectives of the practice guidelines in order to significantly improve the prevention of type 2 diabetes.”
Read the full study in the journal Diabetologia.
