Lifestyle Coaching Holds Promise for Diabetes

An ambitious study of lifestyle intervention for people with type 2 diabetes has reported interim results. The Look AHEAD trial stands for Action for Health in Diabetes. It includes more than 5,000 study subjects assigned to either intensive lifestyle coaching or diabetes support and education to serve as the control group.
The four-year results show that those who have been coached on making lifestyle changes have lost significantly more weight and improved their fitness. They also have lower blood pressure and hemoglobin A1c levels. This is a measure of blood sugar over several weeks. Good HDL cholesterol levels were also higher among the intervention group. The study will run for approximately another decade. The scientists will be analyzing the results to see if weight loss and a healthier lifestyle can reduce the risk of heart attack, stroke and death from other causes.
[Archives of Internal Medicine, Sept.27, 2010]