Lifestyle Modification can improve quality of life in diabetics

Diabetes mellitus is a disorder in which the body’s cells fail to take up glucose from the blood. Tissues waste away as glucose-starved cells are forced to consume their own proteins, leading to breakdown of the essential functions of the cells, and inturn the entire body. Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure, blindness, and amputation in adults. Almost all of the increase in the last decade is in the 85% of diabetics who suffer from type 2, or adult-onset diabetes. These individuals lack the ability to use the hormone insulin.

Individuals who suffer from type 2 diabetes have normal or even elevated levels of insulin in their blood, and normal insulin receptors, but for some reason the binding of insulin to their cell receptors does not turn on the glucose-transporting machinery like it is supposed to do.

A team of scientists at the University of Pennsylvania School of medicine had been investigating how a category of drugs called thiazolidinediones helped combat diabetes. They found that these cause the body cells to use insulin more effectively, and this suggested to them that the drug might be targeting a hormone.

Scientists have shown strong evidence that weight loss produced by lifestyle modification reduces blood glucose levels and Glycosylated haemoglobin(HbA1c) in some patients with type 2 diabetes. They also showed evidence that a decrease in abdominal fat will improve glucose tolerance in overweight individuals with impaired glucose/sugar tolerance, although not independent of weight loss. Increased cardiorespiratory fitness improves glucose tolerance in overweight individuals with impaired glucose tolerance or diabetes, which is dependent of specific weight loss, abdominal fat being a primary source. Weight loss induced by weight loss medications does not appear to improve blood glucose levels any better than weight loss through lifestyle therapy in overweight people with or without type 2 diabetes.

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