Young Indian diabetes sufferers exercise in a gymnasium at a clinic in Mumbai.
Diabetologists have now found solid proof that adopting a healthy lifestyle reverses one’s chances of developing diabetes.
In a study that involved 1,253 Chennaiites diagnosed with ‘pre diabetes’, the group that was enrolled into weekly classes for ‘Lifestyle Improvement’ seems to have gotten rid of the diabetes danger that was lurking above their heads.
With a minimum of 150 minutes of walking or jogging in a week, and a healthy low fat diet for four months, doctors found that people lost between 2.5 to 6 kg of weight, and their blood glucose levels became normal.
Researchers from Emory University and the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation are also trying to hit on a formula of an exercise-diet combination that can prevent diabetes in the Indian population.
“Even though Indians are genetically predisposed to diabetes, this study proves that we can fight this genetic possibility with lifestyle modification,” said K.M. Venkat Narayan from the Emory university, one of the authors of the year-long D-CLIP study that has now reached its halfway mark.
The specialists screened around 20,000 people from across Chennai — from slums to corporate offices, and picked out people with pre-diabetes symptoms like obesity, high blood pressure and abnormal glucose mechanism. Around 620 of them were picked randomly for the study, and divided into two groups.
“The control group was advised to lose weight, and given a diet chart to follow. They were not monitored after that. The other group, which we call the ‘intervention group’ was invited to attend our classes,” said V. Mohan, president of MDRF.
MDRF vice-president R.M. Anjana explained that the subjects of the study, aged between 20 and 65 years of age, visited the hospital for weekly classes, where volunteers gave them a diet regime, and also started them out on 30 minutes walking, five days a week.
