Better diet and more exercise benefits older diabetics and obese people
(Originally published April 25, 2016)
The role of the modern doctor is no longer simply to prescribe the best medicine for each disease. The doctor has to go further, find out the causes of problems and help solve them and in cases such as diabetes already installed, make recommendations as natural as possible.
The first six months of this research, which will take a year to complete, are very encouraging. Lifestyle changes including healthier eating and exercise are helping over-65s, overweight and diabetics to improve blood glucose, body composition, physical capacity and bone quality. To date, no guidelines exist for individuals older than 65 years.
Obesity and diabetes are very common in the elderly because of the progressive decrease in physical activity and often lack of dietary care. Obesity worsens all scenarios, leading to more metabolic imbalances. Participants in the study are aged between 65 and 85 and are allocated into different groups receiving intensive or simpler interventions.
The intensive intervention is 90 minutes of resistance and aerobic exercise 3 times a week plus a weekly lesson on healthy eating. Participants record everything they eat and can receive personalised weight-loss advice. The control group has no exercise programme and only receives a diabetes education session once a month.
The results in just 6 months are very good, showing that patients in the intervention group have maintained more lean mass, lost more fat mass, decreased their glycated hemoglobin more, have better aerobic capacity and improved bone health.
Therefore, intensive interventions that include exercise and diet are very effective and help to greatly improve the quality of life of patients.