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NEW YORK, Mar 26 (Reuters Health) - People who appear to be on a crash-course with type 2 diabetes may be able to head off the diagnosis by lowering their dietary fat intake, recent study findings suggest.
Impaired glucose tolerance is a decline in the body's ability to remove sugar from the blood and use it for fuel. This condition is a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes.
Weight gain also greatly boosts a person's diabetes risk. Dr. Boyd A. Swinburn and colleagues from the University of Auckland in New Zealand conducted a 1-year trial to determine if people with impaired glucose tolerance could improve their glucose tolerance and lose weight by cutting down on fat consumption.
The investigators instructed 136 people to lower their fat intake or follow their regular diet for 1 year. Patients told to cut back on fat participated in monthly small-group education sessions that included tips on how to lower dietary fat intake. The researchers weighed and measured all patients up to 5 years later.
After 1 year, the patients who stuck with the low-fat diet lost more weight. And while 47% of patients who reduced their fat intake had impaired glucose tolerance or type 2 diabetes, 67% of patients in the other group did. Individuals on low-fat diets were also exercising more.
Over time, the differences narrowed and by the fifth year there were no significant differences in glucose tolerance or weight between the patients in either group.
But effects were lasting for the 50% of participants in the diet group who adhered most closely to the low-fat diet, Swinburn and colleagues report in the April issue of Diabetes Care. These individuals had lower blood glucose levels 5 years after the trial began than the patients who were not on the diet.
The findings suggest that the education and support program was key to the success of patients because it helped them to maintain important lifestyle changes, such as exercise.
"The natural history for people at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes is weight gain and deterioration in glucose tolerance," the authors conclude. "This process may be ameliorated through adherence to a reduced fat intake."
SOURCE: Diabetes Care 2001;24:619-624.
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