Mediterranean Diet Reduces Need For Type 2 Diabetes Drugs

Sept. 1, 2009— -- A so-called Mediterranean diet -- rich in nuts, whole grains, fruits, vegetables and healthy oils -- reduces the likelihood that patients recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes will need drugs to lower their blood sugar, a new study found.

Among diabetics who followed the Mediterranean-style diet, only 44 percent required the blood sugar-lowering medicines known as antihyperglycemic drugs, compared to 70 percent of patients who followed the standard, low-fat diet recommended by cardiologists, according to a report in the Sept. 1 edition of the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.

Patients on the Mediterranean-style diet also lost more weight and experienced greater improvements in blood sugar control and coronary risk measures than those on the low-fat diet.

"Compared with a low-fat diet, a low-carbohydrate, Mediterranean-style diet led to more favorable changes in glycemic control and coronary risk factors and delayed the need for antihyperglycemic drug therapy in overweight patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes," wrote Dr. Dario Giugliano of the Second University of Naples and his colleagues in the study.

Despite these findings, the authors suggested that drug therapy would still be a primary weapon in the battle against type 2 diabetes, a disease that is projected to affect 380 million people worldwide by 2025, according to estimates cited in the paper.

The type 2 condition, which typically develops in middle age, occurs when blood sugar levels rise because of a lack of insulin, or the body's inability to use insulin efficiently. It can often be treated with diet and exercise, or with drugs less potent than insulin itself. The question, according to the researchers, is whether and when to use drugs.

"Lifestyle intervention studies have demonstrated large reductions in risk for type 2 diabetes that remain after lifestyle counseling is stopped," the authors wrote.

"Despite this beneficial effect, the American Diabetes Association recommends that patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes be treated with pharmacotherapy as well as lifestyle changes... Lifestyle changes are often inadequate because patients do not lose weight or regain weight or their diabetes worsens independent of weight," they added.