The risk of diabetes amongst Indians can be reduced by 26 to 30 per cent through Life Style Modification (LSM) and exercise, a combination found equally effective as medication, according to a research finding.

The four and a half year study, first of its kind on prevention of diabetes in the South East Asia, revealed that a 28.5 per cent reduction of risk could be achieved by just life style modification including diet and exercise which is comparable with the results achieved by medication and a combination of LSM and medication.

A combination of moderate LSM, added with doses of Metformin, can reduce risk score of diabetes by 28.2 per cent in Indians, says the study on Indian Diabetes Prevention Program (IDDP) conducted by MV Hospital for Diabetes and Diabetes Research Centre at Chennai. The result achieved by only using medications found to be 26.4 per cent.

"The study proved that the risk for diabetes could be reduced by introducing life style modification or a moderate life style modification added with slight medication," told Dr. A Ramachandran, Principal Investigator of the study and the Director of MV Hospital for Diabetes and Diabetes Research Centre in a press conference.

"The methods could be a public health strategy either initiated by the government or the public. An earlier study has proven that diabetes ranks only next to smoking as a cause of heart disease among the urban Indian population and the results of the study will help to prevent such complications of diabetes," he added.

The study has been conducted on 531 pro-diabetes subjects, identified with Impaired Glucose Tolerance (IGT) has been selected by screening 11,000 people. The subjects were classified into four groups, control group subjected for normal observation, life style modification group with people who were being instructed to apply diet changes and 30 minutes walk, medicated group for whom metformin was prescribed to reduce blood sugar and a group for which both the life style change and metformin was prescribed.

The study proved that the conversion rate of IGT to diabetes is very high, to 55 per cent of after three years. And 39.3 per cent people who followed diet with exercise, 40.5 per cent subjects under medication and 39.5 per cent in the group, which followed both life style change and medication has found to be converted as diabetic patients.

The study, which followed the international guidelines for research, has been monitored by the International Data Monitoring Committee (IDMC) consisting of scientists from USA, UK, Europe and India. The study group will continue to conduct post trial follow up to check the duration of the effects in the subjects, informed Ramachandran.

The increasing urbanization, life expectancy and high prevalence of IGT pave way for the rapid increase of diabetes patients in India. In the total population of 1000 million in India, 35 million adults over 20 years were affected by diabetics, in which 13.3 million are undiagnosed cases.