Should weight loss be first line therapy for type 2 diabetes? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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For the majority of people with type 2 diabetes, weight loss of 15% of their body weight should be first among therapies to manage the condition, a recent study concludes. Rita Kalyani, a diabetes expert at Johns Hopkins, comments.

Kalyani: It’s not new to focus on obesity as a cornerstone of management in type 2 diabetes. The degree of weight loss they’re suggesting of 15% or more is what we usually see after bariatric surgery. It’s always been a challenge to maintain that degree of weight loss over time. Now that we have newer agents in the GLP1 agonist class that are given once weekly and at higher doses have been found to attain 15% or more weight loss in a substantial proportion of patients, now we have medical options.  :34

Kalyani says other medical options are also on the horizon and says that when weight loss of this magnitude is achieved, many of the abnormalities seen in type 2 diabetes disappear. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.