Beautyf

Most of us know that diabetes is a problem in today's world, and it's getting worse. In type 2 diabetes, the body becomes unable to control blood sugar levels, leading to a range of complications that can affect almost every part of the body.

It is useful to note that a blood test can detect the stage before the development of full-fledged diabetes, when the body is just beginning to have difficulty suppressing blood sugar levels. We'll call it "prediabetes."

Help! My doctor said I have prediabetes. What will we do?
Having prediabetes does not mean that you will definitely get diabetes. In fact, less than half of people with prediabetes will develop type 2 diabetes within ten years. So what can you do to avoid this?

As our society has become more obese and sedentary, the prevalence of type 2 diabetes has skyrocketed. Is it obvious that weight loss and exercise can prevent diabetes? Probably no. Currently, people with prediabetes are advised to lose weight and start moving, but the validity of such advice is not entirely clear.

In a recent Cochrane review, scientists tried to find out whether diet, physical activity, or both can stop (or at least delay) the development of type 2 diabetes in people with prediabetes.

The authors looking for evidence found 12 randomized control trials that tried to change people's lifestyle for at least 2 years (and up to 6 years).

Collectively, these studies included more than 5,000 people with prediabetes. The studies were slightly different, but they all sorted people with prediabetes into different strategies, including diet and exercise (or continuing to live normally) in different combinations.

Proper nutrition and exercise sound like hard work. Will they stop the development of type 2 diabetes?
The main conclusions of the review:

People with prediabetes can probably prevent or delay the development of type 2 diabetes by changing their eating habits and increasing physical activity.
It is unclear whether diet alone or increased physical activity is effective.
It is unclear whether diet and exercise affect the risk of heart disease, stroke, or death in people with prediabetes. The studies included in the review did not mention other complications of diabetes, such as kidney and eye disease.
What does it mean?
Currently, people with prediabetes are advised to reduce calorie intake and increase physical activity. In this review, there is fairly strong evidence that this will help prevent (or delay) the development of full-blown type 2 diabetes.

However, it won't help everyone. In the group the researchers targeted for weight loss and increased activity, 15 out of every 100 people developed diabetes during the follow-up period. In the "keep calm and carry on" group, 26 out of 100 people with prediabetes developed type 2 diabetes.

So, you can reduce your chances of developing type 2 diabetes by following a healthy lifestyle, but you may still be out of luck.

It is possible that changing eating habits or activity levels is effective in itself, but the number of people included in these studies was small, so it was not possible to determine whether the effect was real or due to chance.

So, what did the scientists do in these studies? They tried to answer the same question, but their methods were slightly different.

Most dietary therapies have focused on getting people to cut back on their calorie intake in order to lose weight. Some studies have also asked people to reduce their fat intake and increase their dietary fiber.

Interference with exercise also varied. Some studies required people to do more intense exercise or more minutes per week than others.

Patients and investigators may have different priorities
Patients and researchers often ask different questions. For people with prediabetes, there are some things that are important that have not been covered in research.

The studies included in this review did not provide insight into whether changes in diet and physical activity would affect the likelihood of diabetes complications (such as foot, eye, or kidney problems) or death. There has been no convincing evidence that changing diet and physical activity levels will affect the likelihood of heart attacks or strokes.

Anyone who has tried to eat less and move more knows that it is difficult and requires some sacrifice. It is not clear from these studies whether the quality of life of people who made lifestyle changes improved compared to those who did nothing.

What is left for us?
After all, we all know that we should prefer an apple over a double chocolate chip cookie, and an evening run over a TV couch, but in reality