London, Oct 29 (ANI): Rigorous lifestyle changes aimed at modest weight loss and oral drug metformin can reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, a new study has found.

Boffins at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and 26 other sites determined the results from the Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study (DPPOS), a 10-year follow-up study of patients who participated in the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP).

The new study’s findings appear in the Oct. 29, 2009, online edition of The Lancet.

The DPPOS found that patients at high risk for developing type 2 diabetes who made lifestyle changes also had lower blood pressure and triglyceride levels.

The study also found that those treated with the oral diabetes drug metformin, rather than intensive lifestyle changes, reduced the rate of developing diabetes by 18 percent after 10 years compared with a placebo.

Neil H. White, M.D., a Washington University pediatric diabetes specialist at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, was the principal investigator of both studies at the Washington University School of Medicine site, which had about 170 adult patients in the DPP and 140 in the DPPOS.

“Changing one’s lifestyle to better health habits, including those aimed at reduced weight, a better diet and more exercise, will have long-term and sustained impact on overall health, at least in preventing diabetes and hopefully in preventing complications associated with diabetes and prediabetes,” White says.

“Even if the weight loss is slight, it will have huge benefits,” the expert added. (ANI)