Small lifestyle changes can halve risk of type 2 diabetes

LOSING just 4lb to 7lb in weight almost halves people’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes, research suggests.

A study led by Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital and the University of East Anglia found that providing support to help people with prediabetes make small changes to their lifestyle, diet and physical activity can reduce the risk of them developing the condition.

According to the research, support to make modest lifestyle changes, including losing 4lb to 7lb of weight and increased physical activity over two years, reduced the risk of type 2 diabetes by 40 to 47 per cent.

Researchers say there are about eight million people with prediabetes in the UK and 4.5 million have already developed type 2 diabetes.

The findings, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, come from the Norfolk Diabetes Prevention Study. The NDPS clinical trial ran over eight years and involved more than 1,000 people with prediabetes at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

The trial tested a simple lifestyle intervention, which helped people make small, achievable lifestyle changes that led to a modest weight loss, and increases in physical activity.

These changes were sustained for at least two years and the weight lost was not put back on.

The NDPS study worked with 135 GP practices in the East of England. More than 1,000 people with prediabetes in the region were then entered into a randomised controlled trial, testing a pragmatic real-world lifestyle intervention, compared to a control group, with average follow-up of just over two years.

NDPS co-investigator Prof Max Bachmann, from UEA’S Norwich Medical School, said: “For every 11 people who received the NDPS intervention, one person was prevented from getting type 2 diabetes, which is a real breakthrough.”