Diabetics who exercise are more mobile

Overweight or obese adults with type 2 diabetes who lost weight and increased exercise reduced their risk of losing mobility, U.S. researchers found. Study leader Dr. Griffin P. Rodgers, director of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, part of the National Institute of Health, said the four-year randomized clinical trial was designed to determine the long-term effects of intentional weight loss on the risk of developing cardiovascular disease in overweight and obese individuals with type 2 diabetes. Beginning in 2001, a total of 5,145 participants were randomly assigned to either an intensive lifestyle intervention group or a diabetes support and education group. Participants receiving the intervention attended group and individual meetings to achieve and maintain weight loss through decreased caloric intake and increased physical activity. The diabetes group attended three meetings each year that provided general education on diet, activity, and social support. To assess mobility and disability, participants rated their ability to carry out activities with or without limitations such as running and lifting heavy objects, pushing a vacuum cleaner or playing golf. Both groups were weighed annually and completed a treadmill fitness test at baseline, after one year, and at the end of four years. The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found those in intensive lifestyle intervention group experienced a 48 percent reduction in mobility-related disability compared with the diabetes education group. Furthermore, 20.6 percent of intensive lifestyle intervention participants reported severe disability, compared to 26.2 percent of participants in the diabetes education group.