HHS HealthBeat (January 13, 2010)

More time without diabetes

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Being physically active and controlling weight reduces the risk of diabetes. And a long-running study of people at high risk finds a continuing healthy lifestyle can keep the benefit going. The study also found a smaller benefit for those taking the drug metformin.

Jill Crandall of Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University saw that in 10 years of data, in a follow-up to a study that had shown the initial benefits of lifestyle or metformin.

[Jill Crandall speaks]``The original lifestyle group still has lower rates of diabetes, with a risk reduction of 34 percent. And the metformin group also continues to have lower rates of diabetes, with a reduction in risk of 18 percent.’’

The study in the journal The Lancet was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: May 7, 2011