November is American Diabetes Month

Early treatment of pre-diabetes can prevent or delay type 2.

About 79 million Americans are at high risk for diabetes, because their blood sugar levels are higher than normal. They have pre-diabetes.

Now, there's help.
A study by Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas shows that intensive early treatment, first with insulin, then with a diabetes drug, preserves the body's insulin-producing capacity, according to Diabetes Care.

Previously, the first steps in treatment were to emphasize diet and weight management, then to couple lifestyle changes with the diabetes drug metformin.

Another new study published in The Lancet shows that treating pre-diabetes early and aggressively with intensive lifestyle changes and medication could be an effective way to reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Study subjects were divided into intensive lifestyle intervention, pre-diabetes medicine (metformin) and placebo groups. The analysis tracked the patients who did not progress to diabetes, and those whose glucose levels returned to normal.

People in the back-to-normal-glucose group were 56 percent less likely to develop diabetes during the next 5.7 years, regardless of whether lifestyle changes or aggressive medication caused the return to normal. The study supports a shift to early and aggressive glucose lowering.

Don't wait

At Duke University, doctors say both studies emphasize the need to aggressively treat pre-diabetes as soon as it's diagnosed.

Waiting, or taking a one-step-at-a-time approach, increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes and exposes the body to its damaging effects for a longer period of time.

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