Home Diabetes and Endocrinology Short Course of Intensive Lifestyle, Drug Tx Helpful in T2DM

Short Course of Intensive Lifestyle, Drug Tx Helpful in T2DM

More participants achieve normoglycemia on therapy versus standard diabetes care

THURSDAY, March 16, 2017 (HealthDay News) — Intensive lifestyle and drug therapy is associated with achievement of normoglycemia and sustained weight loss in patients with type 2 diabetes, according to a study published online March 15 in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

Natalia McInnes, M.D., from McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, and colleagues randomly allocated 83 participants with type 2 diabetes to an eight-week intensive metabolic intervention, a 16-week intensive metabolic intervention, or standard diabetes care. Weight loss and normoglycemia were targeted with lifestyle approaches and treatment with metformin, acarbose, and insulin glargine during the intensive intervention period; diabetes drugs were then discontinued.

The researchers found that 50.0 and 3.6 percent of the eight-week intervention group and controls achieved normoglycemia on therapy at eight weeks (relative risk, 14.0; 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.97 to 99.38); these percentages were 70.4 and 3.6 percent in the 16-week and control groups, respectively, at 16 weeks (relative risk, 19.7; 95 percent CI, 2.83 to 137.13). Overall, 21.4 percent of the eight-week group and 10.7 percent of controls and 40.7 percent of the 16-week group versus 14.3 percent of controls met hemoglobin A1c criteria for complete or partial diabetes remission at 12 weeks after completion of the intervention (relative risks, 2.00 [95 percent CI, 0.55 to 7.22] and 2.85 [95 percent CI, 1.03 to 7.87], respectively).

“A short course of intensive lifestyle and drug therapy achieves on-treatment normoglycemia and promotes sustained weight loss,” the authors write.

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