Weight Loss & Type 2 Diabetes
What's the most effective way for people
with Type II diabetes to lose weight, and how does that weight loss help
them?
Weight Loss Study Background
Those are the questions researchers hope to answer at the end of an ambitious,
11-year weight loss study that will examine the effects of weight loss
on people with Type 2, or adult-onset, diabetes. With a budget of $180
million, the weight loss study, to be known as Look AHEAD (Action for
Health in Diabetes), is the largest project of its kind ever funded by
the National Institutes of Health. Participants will include 5,000 volunteers
recruited by 16 centers around the country.
Weight Loss Study Method (1)
Wake Forest University School of Medicine, says the study's participants
will be randomly divided into two control groups -one receiving close
weight-loss instruction and monitoring, and the other attending only occasional
educational weight loss sessions.
One group will be attending weekly sessions in which they'll talk about
diet and exercise, and, if appropriate, they'll be put on liquid meal
supplements or portion-control diets. Counselors will work closely with
them to see what can be done about weight loss.
Weight Loss Study Method (2)
The second group will attend just three or four weight loss sessions a
year that will provide some background on diabetes management, including
advice about how important it is to lose weight if you're overweight.
They will also be given information about managing the symptoms of Type
2 diabetes, but this group is not expected to lose much weight.
Weight Loss Study Subjects
Study participants will be people between the ages of 45 and 75 who have
Type 2 diabetes and who are overweight, which will be determined using
a formula known as the body mass index (BMI).
Weight Loss Study - Diabetes & Weight
Loss
Losing weight can be even more of a challenge for people with diabetes
than for those who don't have the disease. For reasons that are unknown,
people with diabetes tend to have a more difficult time losing weight
and keeping it off. About 90 percent of all people who are newly diagnosed
Type 2 diabetics are overweight. However, when obese people with Type
2 diabetes lose weight, they often experience a lowering of their blood
glucose levels and are then able to decrease their insulin or oral diabetes
medications.
Source: HealthScoutNews 2003
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