*An intensive diet and exercise program put type 2 diabetes into remission for more than half of younger adults in a new clinical trial. The results came in just 24 weeks.
According to ScienceDaily, 27 of the 50 participants in the program reached remission, or 54%. Only two of the 46 patients receiving standard care achieved the same result, about 4%.
The approach may sound familiar, since doctors have long recommended diet and exercise to manage the disease. But this was no ordinary lifestyle plan. Participants consumed 800 to 900 calories a day, relying on meal-replacement products early on. They stopped taking glucose-lowering medications under medical supervision and completed supervised aerobic and strength workouts twice a week.
The key difference was the focus on preserving muscle. Rapid weight loss often reduces muscle along with fat, so the team added resistance training to help prevent that loss. Their data suggest participants shed significant fat while maintaining muscle mass.
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“Preserving muscle during remission-oriented weight loss may have important implications for long-term metabolic health, physical function, and disease trajectory,” the researchers said.
The study enrolled adults ages 18 to 45 with obesity and early-onset type 2 diabetes. This form of the disease tends to progress faster and cause complications at a younger age. Research teams from McGill University, the University of Leicester and the University of Alberta conducted the trial in Canada and England.
The researchers stopped short of calling the results a cure. They noted their remission rates rank “at the upper end of those previously reported in the literature for trials of similar duration.” Remission means blood sugar stays below the diabetes threshold without medication, not that the disease has disappeared.
The trial also had limitations. It included only 96 people and lasted six months. Side effects affected 43 of the 50 participants in the diet program, mostly headaches, constipation, dizziness and fatigue, though none were severe.
The team presented the findings at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes annual meeting, and The Lancet Regional Health Americas published the study. The authors say longer, real-world studies are needed to determine whether the results hold once patients leave a monitored setting.
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