There’s good news for people with prediabetes. Research published in The Lancet (Volume 379, page 2243) shows that people with prediabetes who achieve a normal glucose level through exercise or use of medication may reduce the likelihood of progressing to diabetes -- even if they achieve it just once.
These findings are based on follow-up data from 1,990 adults with prediabetes who had previously enrolled in the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP). In the DPP, participants were randomly assigned to lifestyle interventions, the diabetes medication metformin or placebo for an average of three years. Those chosen for this analysis still had prediabetes or had reverted to normal blood glucose levels during an average follow-up period of nearly six years after the initial study ended. People who had already developed diabetes were excluded.
Compared with people who continued to have prediabetes and never achieved normal glucose levels, those who did so at least once during the study had a 56 percent lower risk of developing diabetes. The more often blood glucose levels were normal, the lower the risk of diabetes. Further, it didn't matter how the person improved -- by lifestyle or metformin.
Take-away message: These findings provide additional evidence that if you have prediabetes, it's important to try to normalize your blood glucose level. And it doesn't matter how you do it -- just do it.
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