I am always amazed that studies are done, and done again, demonstrating the obvious. Being obese will almost always result in Type 2 Diabetes. Loosing weight and moving will almost always mitigate against Type 2 Diabetes.
Now in a
NEJM article the authors conclude:
Weight loss and improved fitness slowed the decline in mobility in overweight adults with type 2 diabetes.
So what is new here? Nothing really. They conclude:
Among overweight and obese adults with type 2 diabetes, an intensive lifestyle intervention led to a relative reduction of 48% in the severity of mobility related disability, as compared with diabetes support and education. This effect was mediated by both weight loss and improvement in fitness. Group differences that favored the lifestyle-intervention group were most striking in the severe- disability category. However, as shown by prevalence rates in the good-mobility category during all 4 years of the study, participants in the lifestyle-intervention group also retained higher levels of healthy functioning than those in the support group. The proportion of participants with the highest level of functioning at baseline in the support group was generally stable until year 3 and then declined. By contrast, in the lifestyle-intervention group, there was an increase in the prevalence in the good mobility category by year 2, and rates never fell below baseline.
Reuters also published a piece on this result:
The lifestyle changes helped mobile people
stay that way and eased severe mobility problems in others, at least
over the short term. Lead author .... , said the trends show the importance of encouraging people to
get their weight down and exercise sooner, rather than waiting until
they develop problems getting around.
But all of this was clinically well known. Perhaps another study is supposed to demonstrate something. The only way to stop the obesity epidemic is to do what was done with cigarettes, tax it. Unfortunately none of the Republican advisors want to do that; one wants to tax gasoline out of existence and the other wants to have the Government mandate all health care, none of which addresses this issue! And the Democrats, well they seem to be even worse. Just watch the costs explode.
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