Diet, exercise can delay diabetes for years

Courtesy of Reuters

Drinking less alcohol, eating more vegetables and exercising can prevent or delay the onset of diabetes, showing that lifestyle changes can make a big difference. Diet and exercise reduced the incidence of diabetes by about 43 percent over 20 years among 577 high-risk Chinese adults, researchers reported in the journal Lancet. At the end of the 20 years, 80 percent of those who changed what they ate and exercised more had diabetes, compared with 93 percent who made no changes.

The volunteers were assigned to either a control group or one of three groups that included an improved diet, better exercise or a combination of both. The researchers did not say what specific foods or amount of exercise contributed to the health improvements but said the findings provide an effective strategy to deal with a disease that kills about 3 million people worldwide each year.

Steve - while I would have expected a more dramatic result, a controlled long-term study like this does show that lifestyle changes can make a big difference in developing chronic disease.