Can diet and exercise reverse type 2 diabetes? What a new study found
CNN · Katia Hetter ·
An intensive diet and exercise program helped younger adults reverse type 2 diabetes in a clinical trial. Here’s what it takes.
While an estimated 38 million Americans have type 2 diabetes, the condition is increasingly being diagnosed in younger adults. Without treatment, they face decades of elevated risk for complications like heart disease and kidney failure.
A recent study published October 1 in the journal The Lancet Regional Health – Americas investigated whether a combination of intensive weight loss and structured exercise could put early-onset type 2 diabetes into remission.
Researchers enrolled 96 adults ages 18 to 45 who had obesity and had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes within the previous six years. The participants’ average age was about 38, and they had lived with diabetes for an average of just over two years. The small clinical trial was conducted in Canada and the United Kingdom.