Lifestyle Intervention More Effective Than Drugs for Pre-Diabetics

Actor Alec Baldwin turned a few heads at this year’s Screen Actors Guild Awards. Baldwin disclosed to the press that he was diagnosed as pre-diabetic last year. Baldwin said he received the diagnosis on May 10 and subsequently had to change his diet. The actor has since lost 30 lbs. and looked quite svelte at the award show where he took home the statuette for male actor in a TV comedy series.

Baldwin told “Entertainment Tonight” that he dropped the weight in just four months by giving up sugar and bumping up his activity with Pilates and spinning, but “not as much yoga as I’d like.”

Pre-diabetes places Baldwin among an estimated 79 million Americans with elevated blood sugar levels that can put them at risk of chronic, life-threatening Type 2 diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association. Baldwin’s change in the right direction was in step with a new study that demonstrated that lifestyle intervention is twice as effective as drug therapy in reducing the development of type 2 diabetes over the course of 10 years, according to a recent study presented at a meeting of the American Diabetes Association. Lifestyle intervention also significantly reduced medical costs over the same period when compared to drug therapy.

Because the lifestyle intervention group received one-on-one training, it cost more than drug therapy with metformin. Yet study author Dr. William Herman of the University of Michigan noted that the costs of lifestyle intervention would likely come down if administered to groups. The study included more than 3,000 people at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes; all were overweight and were considered to have pre-diabetes. They also had additional risk factors for developing type 2 diabetes.

“Make no mistake because the evidence is overwhelming: Following proper diet and activity guidelines will significantly reduce your risk of many ‘diseases’ that are becoming more and more common today,” say boomer generation health experts Dian Griesel, Ph.D., and Tom Griesel, authors of the new book TurboCharged: Accelerate Your Fat Burning Metabolism, Get Lean Fast and Leave Diet and Exercise Rules in the Dust (April 2011, BSH). “ As Alec Baldwin’s own journey showed, the earlier you start, the better; but it is always better to start late than never. You can improve your children’s current and possibly future health by educating and training them properly when they are young.” TurboCharged® is a groundbreaking 8-Step program that defies common weight-loss theories. It successfully delivers body-defining rapid fat loss, accelerates metabolism, and improves health and odds of longevity without gimmicks, supplements or special equipment. For more information, log on to http://turbocharged.us.com/about-2/learn-more/.