Comments on: How to prevent diabetes with diet and exercise

By: Mary Brighton, MS, RD

Mary Brighton, MS, RD — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 23:11:44 +0000

Went to a hypertension/cardiovascular medical conference in October with speakers being professors and doctors from France and Italy…One comment during a clinical discussion was from a French doctor. His 55 year old patient’s diabetes was still not in control…His answer: go from using metformin to insulin to control her type II diabetes…
Initially, the doctor in question had handed the patient a sheet of what to eat (and a restricted diet of 1600 calories a day plus exercise 30 minutes a day. The doctor believed that by handing this patient a sheet of paper and telling her to walk each day that she would follow this regularly. She did…for 2-3 weeks..!.
I pointed out the doctor that you cannot expect lifestyle changes in patients by doing this…and please…have the patient see a dietiitan or other medical professional to help her reach her diet and exercise goals before adding insulin to her daily medicines. Maybe with proper counseling this patient could control her diabetes with lifestyle rather than adding more medicines. This study does show it possible…

By: Rahim

Rahim — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 17:05:32 +0000

This is great and inspirational information. It saddens me also because I think of my cousin who was diagnosed with diabetes. The doctors told him in his prediabetic state that he needed to get exercise and he did nothing about it. Even still no that he IS a diabetic, I still can’t motivate him to partake in physical activity. Do you have any advice on how I can motivate him? I’m out of ideas.

By: The poor diabetic

The poor diabetic — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 16:16:01 +0000

Recent studies have shown that It can take up to 10 years for prediabetic’s to develop full blown diabetes and within that time if one was to loose even 7% of their body weight, it reduces the risk of diabetes by up to 70% problem is there are a lot of prediabetics out there who go about their business without knowing that they are until diagnosis. I think the key is education and early testing to catch diabetes at its infancy.

By: Edward Pullen MD

Edward Pullen MD — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 05:39:46 +0000

Very interesting stuff. Now to see if this can translate into these behaviors without weekly nurtirion counselling for 2 years and a personal trainer. Not many can get this type of intensive help. Metformin is certainly an option though. Encouragement that this type of behaviour can really delay diabetes is great to be able to do with confidence.