October 29

BBC - A period of careful eating and regular exercise can stave off diabetes for a decade, a study suggests.

US researchers followed up nearly 3,000 overweight people who had taken part in a three year diabetes prevention programme.

The group had initially been divided into three - assigned either to a diet and exercise programme, the diabetes drug metformin or a placebo.

The Lancet report notes it was the dieters who reaped the most benefit.

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That trial, carried out by the US-based Diabetes Prevention Program Research Group, had shown a diet aimed at achieving 7% weight loss, combined with half an hour of exercise five days a week, reduced the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by 58% compared with the placebo group.

The group on metformin, a drug which has been used to treat the condition since the 1950s, saw their risk decline by nearly a third.

A national study on diabetes, to be published online Thursday, concludes that people who stuck to a 10-year diet and exercise plan cut their risk of developing the disease by 34 percent.

The Miami Herald, By Fred Tasker, October 29

Olga Leon could be the poster child for a decade-long, nationwide study on pre-diabetic patients. At 74, she pumps iron at Don Shula's Athletic Club in Miami Lakes.

She strides the treadmill, lifts weights, does aerobics and Pilates.

She eats six eggs for breakfast -- whites only, of course -- and drinks a shake of cucumbers and water. Ten years ago, Leon was overweight and pre-diabetic with a system that was developing glucose intolerance. Her luckiest day, she says, was when she got into a national study, run in part by the University of Miami, to see if strict diet and exercise could keep her and more than 3,000 subjects like her from getting full diabetes.

It worked.

Today, Leon, who lives near Pembroke Pines, weighs in at 133 pounds, 35 pounds lighter than when she started, has great cholesterol numbers and not one trace of diabetes.

``I'm so happy,'' she said. ``Everybody in my family had diabetes -- my grandmother, my grandfather, my uncles, aunts, everybody.''

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Researchers find the results so significant that they plan to extend the study -- with UM's participation -- for another five years. The National Institutes of Health has already promised funding.

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In the United States, about 11 percent of adults, or 24 million people, have diabetes, and 95 percent of those have type 2 diabetes.

The rate is higher, at 14.7 percent, among black people and slightly lower, at 10.4 percent, among Hispanic people, according to the American Diabetes Association.

Another 57 million overweight adults have glucose levels that are high but not yet in the diabetic range, according to the National Institutes of Health.