How can weight loss help resolve type 2 diabetes? Elizabeth Tracey reports

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:03 — 1.5MB)

Subscribe: RSS

A group of overweight but not obese people with type 2 diabetes were able to completely resolve the condition and go off medications when they lost 10-15% of their body weight, a new study finds. Diabetes expert Rita Kalyani at Johns Hopkins says where they lost weight may help explain the resolution.

Kalyani: It wasn’t just total body fat as reflected by BMI or weight, they also found what they call ectopic fat, so fat in other organs, the pancreas and the liver, that fat in those other organs also decreased. Overall this was a very positive study suggesting that weight loss is important no matter what BMI you start off with, even if you’re in the non-obese or even normal range. And that we should really be thinking about this as an important intervention in all people with diabetes.  :30

Kalyani notes that so-called visceral fat has been shown in many previous studies to be associated with a range of negative health outcomes. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.