Diabetes Study Ends Early With a Surprising Result

[alp227]

Source: NYT

A large federal study of whether diet and weight loss can prevent heart attacks and strokes in overweight and obese people with Type 2 diabetes has ended two years ahead of schedule because the intensive program did not help.

“I was surprised,” said Rena Wing, the study’s chairwoman and a professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University’s medical school.

Like many, she had assumed diet and exercise would help, in part because short-term studies had found that those strategies lowered blood sugar levels, blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

But, Dr. Wing added, “You do a study because you don’t know the answer.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/20/health/in-study-weight-loss-did-not-prevent-heart-attacks-in-diabetics.html

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

1. Diet and exercise helped for me.

I weighed 270 and had type 2 diabetes plus sleep apnea. Lost 80 lbs. and don't have either problem these days.

[geckosfeet]

2. Yes - for diabetes. Apparently the study was about heart attack and stroke.

[glinda]

6. Is this to push Statins? New research has shown

statins to be more problem than they are worth so the recommendation came down about diet, exercise (but also CoQ10). http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1340299/Why-taking-statins-pointless--bad-you.html
This is not the study I meant to find but still says the same.

[ProudProgressiveNow]

7. Thx for the link.

[LeftyMom]

12. I'd be very careful of science reporting in the Daily Mail.

It's only slightly more credible than the Weekly World News.

[glinda]

28. I read it somewhere else out of a journal on studies but just used this one as

it has some similar notes.

[eridani]

8. You are still a type II diabetic, but now you have controlled your blood sugars

Type II is a genetic disease, period. In the old days, the trait helped some women to have normal-sized babies under famine conditions, and actual diabetic symptoms were very rare because most people did hard labor on short rations, thus dying of something else before their sugars got out of whack. If you eat a lot less, you remove stress on a regulatory system that is defective under modern conditions, therfore removing the symptoms that would otherwise occur.

That does not fix the system. If your shock absorbers are shot, and you carefully avoid driving on bumpy roads and thus avoid damage to your car, you have NOT fixed the shocks.

[Maineman]

17. Genetic disease???

"Type II is a genetic disease, period." Nonsense.

[RebelOne]

20. Well, it is genetic in my case.

My grandmother, all my aunts, uncles, my mother and my two sisters all had Type II Another sister had it, but she passed away from cancer. My doctor said I am pre-diabetic, but I probably have it now, as I have not been back to see him for a few years.

So it is not nonsense.

[2on2u]

21. Ditto, I've known the following for about 20 years.... however, link doesn't equal causation.

http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2012/08/28/common-virus-linked-to-type-2-diabetes/

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Researchers say they’ve found a link between a type of Herpes virus and Type-2 diabetes.

They say as many as 80 percent of adults over age 40 have the virus and most don’t know it.

It’s a common virus. Four out of five people over the age of 40 have had it, usually early in life, perhaps not even noticing symptoms.

[eridani]

22. I suppose your next project will be to stop hospitals from testing for pheylketonuria

Its treatment is drastically reducing phenylalanine in the diet from newborn to about 5 years old, which prevents brain damage. Since the fix is dietary, obviously PKU is not a genetic disease, right?

[roguevalley]

10. me too

[lunasun]

3. lost about 5 percent of their weight over the course of the study.....

might need more loss than that to make a difference..........

[TexasBushwhacker]

14. Yeah, how could 5% be considered meaningful?

This study had been going for 11 years and they only lost 5% and they were overweight or obese to start with? I'm not buying it.

[2pooped2pop]

16. yeah, that's only ten lbs on a 200 lb person.

That's a start but not going to change much.

[workinclasszero]

26. 5%?

Well jeez no wonder it had no effects! DUH...

[onehandle]

4. Eat less. Eat better. Exercise more.

No matter what, these three actions help.

[Pharaoh]

5. lets see..........

eating junk food, not exercising and being obese,

verses exercise, eating healthy foods and lowering your weight make no difference in your health?

Really?

Who are these morons? Lets do a study to find out who these morons are!

Perhaps the fast food industry and Monsanto will fund it! )

[eridani]

9. They didn't say that. They said it didn't prevent heart attacks and stroke

Doesn't mean that other aspects of their health were not improved.

[eggplant]

11. controlling my sugar didn't stop me from my heart attack the following year

A year after I was diagnosed with Type II (A1c was 10.5. Ouch.), I had an MI. My LAD** was almost completely blocked, and there were two other spots with blockages. Three stents later I left the hospital with a bandaid on my thigh. Quite an odd feeling. Luckily, no permanent damage, although two of the stents were drug eleuting, and a few months later, a study came out that said that drug eleuting stents have problems when you discontinue aspirin + plavix. Oops. Ah well, just another two pills to take (and now at least it is generic).

The interesting part is that I caught the Type II fairly early into showing symptoms, and was able to get my A1c down to 5.5 in just a few months after the diagnosis. Unfortunately, after 37 years of terrible diet, sedentary lifestyle, and huge genetic history, my arteries basically said "fuck you".


**The LAD is grimly referred to as "the widowmaker". I was hugely lucky (as was my wife).

[golfguru]

15. 4 things are helping me with blood sugar & heart health

In order of importance:

1. Exercise (4 rounds of golf = walking 25 miles every week)
2. Avoid refined sugar and especially foods made from refined flour such as
pasta, white bread, and potatoes, rice etc. I try to eat some protein with every
meal, especially breakfast. I eat only whole grain breads.
3. Take an aspirin 3 or 4 times a week with food.
4. Keep weight under recommended level.

If I exercise more during a week, I can get away with some bad eating.
I can tell when I have too much blood sugar...there is that distinct tingling
near bottom of feet. When that happens, sure enough my blood sugar is north
of 140. When no such symptoms, it is below 120. I just turned 72 and no
heart attacks yet, but I am diligent because lots of heart attack history in family.
Notice weight is the last in my priority order, just my opinion.

[eggplant]

18. good to hear!

I tracked my glucose levels quite diligently for about the first two years, until I was able to learn what made them high or low, and now I don't bother with daily testing, just my periodic A1c, which has consistently been below 6.5 this whole time, so yay!

I'm glad you have a good way to sense your levels as well.

I think that the best thing that I did was that, after my heart attack, I did six months of cardiac rehab. Statistically, this has a HUGE impact on survival rates. And I'm diligent about keeping my appointments with my GP and my cadiologist.

It's a good thing I had insurance, too. This would have easily bankrupted us otherwise.

[golfguru]

29. I just had to pass this along to you....

I have made one distinct change in my diet,,,and I can see significant improvement in my blood sugar levels lately. Since nothing else has changed much in my routine, I must conclude that adding cinnamon in my diet has to be the factor!

Hope you are doing well with your health.

[silverweb]

13. Bookmarked for later.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]n/t

[panzerfaust]

19. "...did lose about 5 percent of their weight..." (From the article)

My question: Did the study show that diet, exercise, and weight loss do not lower the risk of heart attack and stroke ...

... or did it show that most people, even in a controlled situation, simply are unable to lose a meaningful amount of weight?

I believe that I would be healthier and feel better if I could lose only about 10% of my current weight. However, in the 5 minutes spent reading and commenting on this article, I finished off about 350 calories of cashews.

Therein lies the problem.

Heading out now for an hour of tennis - but, being pretty old, at best this will only burn 300 calories. Guess will try to keep moving the whole time, or see if we can go another 15 minutes - then it will be a wash.



Then we will go flying.

[high density]

23. Yeah, 5% of their weight?

I got way up to 320lbs, but I was never affected by diabetes. After losing 1-2lbs a month over the past five and a half years or so, I am now down to about 230... For my height I am still (barely) considered "obese" by the CDC's BMI calculation, so there's still clearly more work to be done (another 50lbs, they say!)

I find it rather amazing that a study with "intensive" changes to lifestyle were only able to achieve 5%.

For me, I discovered weight loss is primarily around diet. I do exercise regularly, perhaps about an hour a day, but that is more about feeling good and acting as an antidepressant than anything else. Exercise plus eating way too much was just keeping my weight flat.

[4th law of robotics]

24. Actual results: a 5% reduction in weight was not enough

to reduce the effect of type II diabetes in a population selected for being obese.

Popular interpretation: being overweight has nothing to do with diabetes, I'm going to eat whatever I want.

[Maximumnegro]

25. More data for Gary Taubes

to once again prove it's what you eat that's the problem and that cholesterol and BP are not directly linked to heart disease. Sugar and carbs, our diet is chock full of both. I bet the participants had low fat diet with reduced but still predominant presence of refined carbs and other processed garbage. This would also be a reason for less weight loss. If they were on a proper paleo/low-carb they would shed pounds by the bucketload.

[workinclasszero]

27. Totally agree with you

People need to get off the modern sugar laden frankenfoods.

Sugar:The Bitter Truth

The Skinny on Obesity:

&list=PL39F782316B425249&index=1&feature=plpp_video

Wheat Belly: Whole grain, organic, ciabatta, or Twinkie . . . it's all the same

Modern wheat a "perfect, chronic poison," doctor says http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505269_162-57505149/modern-wheat-a-perfect-chronic-poison-doctor-says/