While losing weight, exercising and quitting smoking can lower rates and improve symptoms in patients with Type 2 diabetes, most patients fail to sustain such health-promoting behaviors long enough to see results, a new study reports. Further, many diabetics do not even initiate attempts to improve health, researchers found. As a result, levels of glucose in the blood rise, putting patients at risk for heart disease, kidney disease and nerve damage.
Obesity is a major risk factor for diabetes.
But according to their report in the May issue of Preventive Medicine, many people with Type 2 diabetes do not attempt to lose weight. And among those who initiated weight-loss measures, many quit within 4 years. Investigators reviewed data from the Health and Retirement Study, a national survey of health behaviors. Their review included 733 people between 50-62 years with Type 2 diabetes. Women reported these behaviors more often than men, researchers note.