Type 2 diabetes: Losing weight helpful, but not for heart risk

CHICAGO, June 25 (UPI) -- Overweight people with type 2 diabetes who lose weight get health benefits, but lower risk of heart attack is not one of them, U.S. researchers say.

Rena R. Wing of Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and Miriam Hospital in Providence, R.I., and colleagues said half of the 5,145 participants in a trial were assigned to an intensive diet and exercise program involving individual and group meetings on strategies for weight loss. The other half received a general program of diabetes education and support several times a year.

Participants were tracked for about 10 years.

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found those in the lifestyle group lost about 8.6 percent of their starting weight the first year and maintained an average 6 percent of weight loss after 10 years. Those in the diabetes education group lost about 1 percent of their starting weight after one year, and 3.5 percent after 10 years.

Those in the lifestyle group were 30 percent less likely to develop chronic kidney disease, had better average blood sugar levels, had better high-density lipoprotein, the good cholesterol, and required less medication.

The study found no difference between the two groups in the number of heart attacks and strokes -- but the heart risk was low in both groups.

The findings were presented at the American Diabetes Association's annual scientific meeting in Chicago.