Millions of Americans think diabetes, and prediabetes, must be controlled with some kind of medication. But a new federal initiative — the Diabetes Prevention Study — has shown that other alternatives, namely adopting healthy diet and fitness habits, can be even more successful.

The Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) is based on research that found healthy lifestyle modifications, eating well, and getting 50 minutes of moderate intensity exercise each week helped people lower their risk of diabetes by 58 percent, primarily through weight loss.

By comparison, individuals that took metformin, a drug that prevents the liver from producing too much glucose, reduced their risk by 31 percent.

The DPP, coordinated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is now carried out in multiple programs across the United States.

One health educator, Santina Jaronki, who works at the Fairfield Health Department in Fairfield, Conn., says results of the program over the past three years have been very positive.

“The CDC aims for 5 to 7 percent weight loss,” Jaronki explains, “and that is what we aim for. After 15 weeks we see each person for monthly follow-ups. The program is absolutely helpful. Our initial group lost over 80 pounds. Not everybody stayed; life gets in the way, but eight or nine made it through.”

The full version of this article appeared in Health Radar newsletter. To read more, click here.