A period of careful eating and regular exercise can stave off diabetes for a decade, a study suggests.
US researchers followed up nearly 3,000 overweight people who had taken part in a three year diabetes prevention programme.
The group had initially been divided into three - assigned either to a diet and exercise programme, the diabetes drug metformin or a placebo.
The Lancet report notes it was the dieters who reaped the most benefit.
All three groups were given access to ongoing lifestyle coaching once the initial three year trial had ended.
That trial, carried out by the US-based Diabetes Prevention Program Research Group, had shown a diet aimed at achieving 7% weight loss, combined with half an hour of exercise five days a week, reduced the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by 58% compared with the placebo group.
The group on metformin, a drug which has been used to treat the condition since the 1950s, saw their risk decline by nearly a third. - BBC
