Diabetes Study Ends Early With a Surprising Result

NY Times ^ | Oct 19, 2012 | Gina Kolata

[Innovative]

A large federal study of whether diet and weight loss can prevent heart attacks and strokes in overweight and obese people with Type 2 diabetes has ended two years ahead of schedule because the intensive program did not help.

About 25 million Americans have Type 2 diabetes. Many are overweight or obese. On average, the disease increases heart disease risk by 2 to 2 1/2 times, said Dr. Ronald Kahn, chief academic officer at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston.

Dr. Nathan, though, said the results meant that people with diabetes might have a choice. The group assigned to diet and exercise ended up with about the same levels of cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar as those in the control group, but the dieters used fewer medications.

[Black Agnes]

I am one of those people who lost a great deal of weight. 80lbs. Have kept most if it off for the past 9 years. Losing that much weight did NOTHING for my sugar levels. The same amount of carbs raise my sugars the same amount postprandially they did before I lost weight. So I stopped eating things that raised my blood sugar (think wheat belly diet). My last a1c was 4.8 No meds. I have the option of taking metformin, which I do from time to time. Not necessarily to help with sugar levels although it does do that.

I still have about 35-40lbs to lose but my blood work continues to be excellent and my last stress test was superb.

YMMV.

[Signalman]

A really good book that explains why low-carb is not only the best way to maintain proper weight, but also the most heart healthy diet:

http://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Get-Fat-About/dp/0307474259/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1350755755&sr=1-1&keywords=gary+taubes+why+we+get+fat+and+what+to+do+about+it

[X-spurt]

Both Mom and Grandma told us that eating too much sugar would give you diabetes. Still think its a fact or at least a big contributor.

[ladyjane]

Big deal. They lost only 5% of their weight? Doesn’t sound like they were very compliant subjects.

No surprise, these obese people were not exercising and definitely not sticking to that diet. LOL

It all boils down to portion size and exercise.

[SoDak]

I’m adopted and thus have no family history, but I know that at 100 lbs lighter I got off three meds, and my quality of life (maybe the biggest bonus of all) is far and away better. I’m 47 and have to keep up with a toddler as I became an old first time dad last year. I no longer have high BP or type 2 diabetes.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

Diet and exercise are still good "in general" but didn't prevent heart attacks in people with diabetes.

To me, diet and exercise have always been quality of life issues, as opposed to longevity.

[muawiyah]

Knew an elderly lady who made it to 100. She loved raw fish prepared just so on little blocks of rice spiced with wasabi and soy.

We once joked about turning her black koi in the backyard pond into instant fresh sashimi!

[Sooth2222]

"They put these people on starvation diets which they did NOT maintain and their weight loss was negligible."

"Some study!"

I agree. An 11 year study -- if participants were getting 1200-1800 calories a day and "intense" exercise they should all look like Senior Olympics athletes after about one year -- not lose 5% of their weight after 11 years. I realize the devil is in the details, and the article hasn't been written yet --but it's obvious that something is very wrong with this study.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

Someone may be listed as having a heart attack asa cause of death, but what about the cause of the cause - like arterial calcification from statins, or the negative interactions of multiple medicines in the body (not yet discovered, maybe never)?

Or, perhaps, opportune infections that get a toehold when an old person's immunity is weakened by a flu shot?

[Jonty30]

Most East Indians are vegetarian and they have fairly long life spans.

http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/10/18/worlds-oldest-dad-96-fathers-another-child/

[ontap]

I don’t suppose they mentioned any benefits of chocolate covered donuts!!!

[bert]

As a type 2 diabetic, i’m not sure they even know with a high degree of certainty what it is. They know symptoms and can do some measuring that provides numbers. They can then correlate those numbers with various maladies.

I can testify that weight loss of about 15% and transition from a obese to overweight biomass yields decrease in various critical numbers. Those numbers already controlled to “normal” by drugs were reduced further by the diet and exercise. Diet meaning reduce carbs. Exercise meaning do something physical to raise your heart rate every day.

A primary difference is the elimination or serious reduction in acid indigestion. Sleep patterns change, more sleep, lest wakefulness at night.

The malfunction is complex and I believe related to all the various numbers being high not just blood sugar/A1c. Although still on the high end of over weight, I feel much better when I don’t eat too many carbs and get some vigorous exercise. The serious exercise I now face is raking leaves probably till the end of January

[neverdem]

"The investigators are analyzing their data and will be publishing them in research papers."

Thanks for the ping, Innovative. This is the main reason I still check out the NY Times. It's hard to beat its health and science section. This study was stopped after 11 years. You can't beat the drugs, but diet and exercise can save you the cost of the drugs and any adverse effects from the drugs.

FReepmail me if you want on or off the diabetes ping list.

[savedbygrace]

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504803_162-57404033-10391709/new-study-weight-loss-surgery-may-cure-diabetes/

[TexasFreeper2009]

Well, I don’t know much about east indians.

But I have known easily over 100 90+ year olds and none of them ever in their lives did ANY of the things that supposedly help you live longer (exercise, vegatarian, ect)

They were all just normal people, living normal lives, most were gardeners and liked working with their hands type jobs

If all this excercise hype were true, then the ranks of the elderly would be filled with body builders and athletes and health food nuts.

[sauropod]

bfl

[Dr. Sivana]

I have never once met a 90+ year old person who exercised or was a vegetarian.

My Polish grandmother died at 97, might have made it to 100 if the appendicitis she had at 90 were properly diagnosed before rupture.

She lived on Kielbasa and roasts and my granpa' fried chicken and homemade cheesecake. He only made it to 86. It must have been the Wild Irish Rose, and homemade wine and root beer he made...and the stogies. Oh, and in the '60s and '70s, about 70% of the men visiting and 25% of the women smoked in a closed up house with no circulation. On the other hand, my grandparents on the other side both died from lung cancer in their early 60s, and their son (my dad) got it in his mid-30s. Genes count for a lot.
,br> Oh, and what's a vegetarian?

[CaptainK]

or the negative interactions of multiple medicines in the body

Just from personal observation of the older people in my life, I've found that those who accepted every offer of a prescribed drug had an earlier and more severe mental deterioration than those who tried to limit their use and used vitamins

[eyedigress]

Congratulations!!

[bert]

The fallacy in your thought is that those who lived to be 90+ did not experience prolonged overabundance of both food and leisure/sedentary lives.

The diabetic epidemic if there is one is experienced by the children and grand children of those of whom you speak.

Their lives were more like humans of old who lived lives requiring more exercise just to live and who did not have Doritos or all the chicken and meat and fries and..... they could want. The problem with abundance is that it is contrary to the genetic programming of tens of thousands of years of evolutionary biology.