Exercise, diet crucial in combatting diabetes
The good news is for at-risk groups is that diet and moderate exercise can turn things around, according to Dr. Victor Luna, a Greenville endocrinologist.
“Diet and exercise is as important as medication,” Luna said. “In fact, medication won't work if you're not engaged in a program where you eat healthy and you exercise.”
Luna recommends aerobic exercise at least 30 minutes a day four or five days per week for most patients, but a person accustomed to a sedentary lifestyle does not have to start out at that level.
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Once they've embarked on an exercise program, Luna said patients report feeling much better.
“Exercise is the better anti-diabetic medication, the better anti-high blood pressure medication, the best anti-depression medication and that's been scientifically proven,” Luna said. “When you exercise, you liberate endorphins and they make you feel better.”
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Some diabetes patients can turn things around completely, he said.
“If you lose weight, you can actually get rid of your diabetes or at least improve so much the metabolic problem to a point that you don't have to take medication, he said. “A lot of people come off of medication by losing weight.”
Although it has long been believed that diet and exercise would help patients with Type Two Diabetes, Luna said a 2002 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the Diabetes Prevention Program, confirmed that belief. The National Diabetes Information Web site states:
“The Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) was a major clinical trial, or research study, aimed at discovering whether either diet and exercise or the oral diabetes drug metformin (Glucophage) could prevent or delay the onset of type 2 diabetes in people with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT).
“The answer is yes. In fact, the DPP found that over the 3 years of the study, diet and exercise sharply reduced the chances that a person with IGT would develop diabetes. Metformin also reduced risk, although less dramatically. The DPP resolved these questions so quickly that, on the advice of an external monitoring board, the program was halted a year early. The researchers published their findings in the February 7, 2002, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
The good news is for at-risk groups is that diet and moderate exercise can turn things around, according to Dr. Victor Luna, a Greenville endocrinologist.
“Diet and exercise is as important as medication,” Luna said. “In fact, medication won't work if you're not engaged in a program where you eat healthy and you exercise.”
Luna recommends aerobic exercise at least 30 minutes a day four or five days per week for most patients, but a person accustomed to a sedentary lifestyle does not have to start out at that level.
[...]
Once they've embarked on an exercise program, Luna said patients report feeling much better.
“Exercise is the better anti-diabetic medication, the better anti-high blood pressure medication, the best anti-depression medication and that's been scientifically proven,” Luna said. “When you exercise, you liberate endorphins and they make you feel better.”
ADVERTISEMENT
*
Some diabetes patients can turn things around completely, he said.
“If you lose weight, you can actually get rid of your diabetes or at least improve so much the metabolic problem to a point that you don't have to take medication, he said. “A lot of people come off of medication by losing weight.”
Although it has long been believed that diet and exercise would help patients with Type Two Diabetes, Luna said a 2002 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the Diabetes Prevention Program, confirmed that belief. The National Diabetes Information Web site states:
“The Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) was a major clinical trial, or research study, aimed at discovering whether either diet and exercise or the oral diabetes drug metformin (Glucophage) could prevent or delay the onset of type 2 diabetes in people with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT).
“The answer is yes. In fact, the DPP found that over the 3 years of the study, diet and exercise sharply reduced the chances that a person with IGT would develop diabetes. Metformin also reduced risk, although less dramatically. The DPP resolved these questions so quickly that, on the advice of an external monitoring board, the program was halted a year early. The researchers published their findings in the February 7, 2002, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
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