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Lifestyle Change Can Help Prevent Diabetes

Aired August 08, 2001 - 14:53   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: We have been watching a major health announcement on diabetes and exercise coming to us from Tommy Thompson, who is the Health and Human Services secretary. Let's check in with our correspondent, Rea Blakey. She has details for us -- Rea.

REA BLAKEY, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Donna, the secretary basically told individuals that there is in fact a way to delay and/or prevent diabetes based on results of a study called the diabetes prevention program, a three-year study. Essentially, what they did was they took a look some 3,200 individuals who have elevated glucose levels, impaired glucose tolerance. And they put those people into different divisions.

One of those groups was a lifestyle changes division -- people basically dieted and exercised to try to lose weight to reduce their possibility of developing diabetes.

There were two other groups: One group that took the medication Glucophage, which actually is a diabetes medication, and then another group that was a control group. The bottom line on this story is, the people who dieted and exercised had a 58 percent reduction in their risk for diabetes.

That's pretty significant. And if those people were 60 or over they had 71 percent reduction in their risk for diabetes. So that's a huge factor that the secretary wants the entire nation to be aware of because there are some ten million people who are at great risk of developing diabetes because they are glucose intolerant, so to speak.

Just want to give you a quick idea of how many people are affected. Right now there are some 16 million people in the country who do in fact have diabetes. The vast majority of those people are represented by minorities: African-Americans have a diabetes rate that is 60 percent higher than that of whites.

Hispanics have a diabetes rate that is something like 90 percent higher than that of whites. People who are also at great risk, anyone who is over the age of 60. Individuals, women in particular who may have developed diabetes during pregnancy, gestational diabetes, and anyone who as a first degree relative who has diabetes.

So, Donna, pretty significant information here. Diabetes cost the nation about $100 billion a year in medical costs. And of course if we can in fact reduce the number who have diabetes, we can obviously save a great deal of money and keep people healthier in the meantime.

KELLEY: Rea Blakey, thanks very much.

So now we have one more season to exercise regularly. But how do you get started? What kind of exercise do you need? Let's find out a little bit more, let's turn to Denise Austin. She is the author of several books on fitness and nutrition and star of "The New Shortcuts" workout video.

Nice to see you again.

DENISE AUSTIN: Hi, Donna, how you are doing!

KELLEY: Fine, thanks. How much exercise should you do?

AUSTIN: Everyone should do some form of exercise each day. I personally do 30 minutes. I wake up in the morning, get my 30 minutes done. And I try to do it five days a week. But your goal, let's say you haven't exercised in a long time, start with ten minutes a day. Just do ten minutes and that ten minutes will gradually get you to you 15 and your ultimate goal will be 20 to 30 minutes.

KELLEY: Always great advice, but we should always say, too, check with your doctor before you get started.

AUSTIN: Yes.

KELLEY: OK, what do you do? Let's say we break it into the blocks if we are starting out and we need that motivation -- ten minutes, ten minutes, ten minutes. What is the best way to start? Can you walk, what should you do?

AUSTIN: Walking is one of the fastest ways to get yourself in shape and everybody can get out there and walk. Just remember to do other forms of exercise too, to firm up your muscles because muscles are the key to keeping your metabolism up.

You also want to kind of couple it with a little weight training exercise so you get some muscles in your body, because muscles are going to keep that metabolism up and boosting. Keeps your weight down. Also you should finish with a little stretch. So try to incorporate a little walking or aerobics to work your heart and to help with prevention of diabetes, and second of all, do a little weight training.

I just do ten minutes a couple of times a week. And there you've got it and then finish it off with some little stretches, just like yoga stretches, anything to give you flexibility, to reach for your toes again.

KELLEY: Something I thought was interesting, you can tell us what I could do or anybody could just sitting here in the chair. What can we do on the tummy?

AUSTIN: Yes, right now everybody sit up nice and tall, pull in your abs, tense and tighten up your tummy muscles for ten seconds and that is equal to one situp. So you could be in a car, you could be watching us right now on TV, suck it in, pull in that belly button, it will stay there naturally if you do it more often.

KELLEY: Stephen and I are doing that as you speak.

AUSTIN: Pull it in!

KELLEY: What is on the short cuts video? Is that because we don't have a lot of time?

AUSTIN: Yes, that is the number one problem people have. Denise, I don't have time to exercise. So what I did is put a brand new video together that has three different ten-minute workouts. First one for the upper part of body, and then I did one for the hips, thighs, and buttocks.

So you can do 10 minutes in the morning, get home from work, OLSON: another 10 minutes. You can do some on your upper body and some on your lower body. You've got it made.

KELLEY: And when it's hot out, you should probably go in the morning. I know that's what you have started doing, right ?

AUSTIN: I exercise in the morning. I'm married with two small little girls so I get up before they get up and get it over with -- 30 minutes. And that is all I do and I love to eat too, Donna.

KELLEY: Denise Austin, fitness guru and now the new work out video is "shortcuts." Thank you very much.

AUSTIN: Thanks, be fit.

KELLEY: Once again, Health And Human Services secretary Tommy Thompson, the big news is today, adult-onset diabetes, it is called Type II diabetes. They find that you can sharply lower your chance of getting the disease with a low fat diet and daily exercise. And they put some results together. In fact they let the study go a year earlier because so much of the information showed that it was highly positive results and the percentage was quite great, 58 percent risk reduction among those who adopted the intensive lifestyle changes.

If you would like more information on the results of today's study and how you can prevent diabetes, which by the way they are telling us, is one of the fastest growing diseases -- already 16 million people in the United States have it -- if you want more on how you can prevent it, log on to CNN.com. Our AOL keyword is CNN.

STEPHEN FRAZIER: Can I let my stomach back out now.

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