Clinical trials suggest that people with type 2 diabetes can control their blood glucose levels without medication if they lose weight and keep it long term.
Weight control at the beginning of type 2 diabetes is key to controlling the disease.Experts know it but, now, according to a study that is published in 'PLOS Medicine', while in clinical trials it is attainable objective, achieving it in a real clinical practice environment is very complicated.
According to the study few patients will reach normal blood glucose levels only with weight control, especially in the long term.
Researchers at Hong Kong University have analyzed data from more than 37,000 patients with type 2 diabetes followed for several years.Their results indicate that in the long term and "in the real world" this is only achieved in 6 % of patients.
At the beginning of type two diabetes, it is essential to mark the prognosis of the disease, says Cristóbal Morales, vowel of Seedo and endocrine of Vithas Sevilla.«This study demonstrates the importance of approach focused on weight loss in people with type 2 diabetes. It shows that if we get weight loss more than 5 or 10% to the debut of the disease, we can not only getThe remission of diabetes, but also reduce cardiovascular mortality by up to 30%».
According to the author of the investigation, Andrea Luk, "a greater weight loss during the first year after the diagnosis of diabetes was associated with a greater probability of achieving the remission of diabetes."
According to the results of the study, only 6% of the people achieved the remission of diabetes only by weight loss approximately eight years after diagnosis.In those people who initially achieved the remission, two thirds had high levels of blood glucose three years after diagnosis.These rates are significantly lower than in clinical trials, where the remission occurred in up to 73% of patients a year after diagnosis.
The study emphasizes that those with the highest weight loss during the first year were more likely to have maintained a sustained remission.
However, for Morales that should not be an obstacle so as not to have it.Therefore, «a key moment in type two diabetes is the beginning.Diabetes education focused on weight can reverse the disease and its complications ».
This expert adds that just at the beginning, when this disease is detected, even in prediabetes, «all effort in healthy lifestyle education is a great health challenge because it has been shown that it avoids the complications of diabetes and increases the quality oflife.And this is especially important the younger the patient is, something that is happening in recent years.
In his opinion, bariatric surgery, although it is a solution patients with an excess of fat and complications, is a late failure of medicine.We have the obligation to walk towards a preventive medicine based on changes in lifestyle ».
