A healthy diet and regular exercise can help to reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, even among those who are at higher genetic risk according to a study that was recently published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism from the University of Eastern Finland; finding that everyone can benefit from healthful lifestyle changes regardless of their genetic risk.
Quick Statistics
Type 2 diabetes has become a serious problem around the World, with 1 in 11 adults having diabetes, and type 2 diabetes represents 90% of those cases, according to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF). In 2021, the CDC estimated that 38.4 million people in the United States had diabetes. This includes 38.1 million adults and 35 per every 10,000 children and adolescents younger than 20 years old had been diagnosed with diabetes, which includes 304,000 with type 1 diabetes. However, 8.7 million of those adults were undiagnosed, which is 22.8% of all U.S. adults with diabetes, and the percentage of adults with diabetes increases with age, reaching 29.2% among those aged 65 years or older.
Genetic Variants
Over 500 genetic variants have been identified that predispose individuals to type 2 diabetes, however, lifestyle factors also affect the risk of developing the disease. Lifestyle-related risk factors include overweight, low intake of dietary fiber, high intake of saturated fats, and lack of exercise.
Previous studies have shown that type 2 diabetes can be effectively prevented by lifestyle changes, however, whether the disease can be prevented even in individuals carrying numerous genetic variants that predispose them to type 2 diabetes has not been fully explored.
The trial
The T2D-GENE Trial was a 3-year lifestyle intervention that involved nearly 1,000 men between the ages of 50 to 75 in eastern Finland, with all of the participants having elevated fasting glucose at baseline. The lifestyle intervention group included more than 600 men, and the rest served as a control group.
The intervention group received guidance on health-promoting lifestyles in group meetings, and they were supported by a web portal designed for the study. participants belonged either to the lowest or the highest tertile in terms of genetic risk (they had either a high or low risk of developing type 2 diabetes).
Participant genetic risk was determined based on 76 gene variants known to predispose to type 2 diabetes. During the intervention, neither the study participants nor the researchers knew to which genetic risk group the participants belonged, and everyone in the intervention received the same lifestyle guidance.
The findings
Those in the lifestyle intervention were able to significantly improve the quality of their diet. Increasing their intake of dietary fiber, improving the quality of fats in their diet, and increasing their consumption of vegetables, fruits, and berries. It is worth noting that although this was not an actual weight loss study, participants in the intervention group did lose weight. The participants were already physically active at baseline and managed to maintain their good exercise habits throughout the study.
The researchers suggest that with these healthful changes, it was possible for the intervention group to reduce the deterioration of glucose metabolism. The findings showed that the prevalence of type 2 diabetes was significantly lower in the lifestyle intervention group than in the control group. The effects of healthful lifestyle changes were equally significant for individuals regardless of whether they had a low or a high genetic risk.
“These findings encourage everyone to make lifestyle changes that promote health. Furthermore, they demonstrate the effectiveness of group- and internet-based lifestyle guidance, which saves healthcare resources,” says University Lecturer, Docent Maria Lankinen of the University of Eastern Finland, the first author of the study.
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References/Sources/Materials provided by:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgae422
https://worldhealth.net/news/unhealthy-sleep-linked-diabetes/
