Organized food and exercise programs help delay the appearance of diabetes in risk groups, according to new recommendations.

The Special Commission of Community Preventive Services, a group of independent experts in public health and prevention, requested a review of 53 studies on 66 programs for promoting diets and physical activity.The studies were made between 1991 and 2015.

The Commission found evidence that these programs reduce the number of new diabetes cases, according to the team in Annals of Internal Medicine.

"If a person exercises and eats better, it will reduce the risk of developing diabetes," said Dr. Patrick L. Remington, co -author of the recommendations designed in the name of the Commission."But if you only tell someone who eats better and exercises, that doesn't work."

Food and physical promotion programs included health appraisals and trained people who worked directly with participants for at least three months with counseling, guidance and support during different sessions.

Some had also included specialists such as nutritionists, physiotherapists, with individualized food and exercise programs and thinning goals.The programs were oriented to adolescents and adults with "pre-diabetes."

"In general, people with high risk of diabetes (adults and children) have overweight/obesity and are sedentary," said the main author of the review, Dr. Ethan Balk, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island.

The review showed that community programs helped to lose weight, reduce blood glucose values ​​and the risk of prediabetes becoming diabetes.Some also decreased blood glucose and improved cholesterol levels.No associated adverse effects arose.

An economic evaluation of the commission also demonstrated that the programs were cost-effects.Half of the participants had paid less than $ 653 and cost them lower if the programs were group or careful care.

He pointed out that there are gyms and clubs that already provided type of programs with an accessible rate.It is "alarming," he said, "that they are not integrated into the routine care of the health system. We design a health system to treat sick people, not to prevent diseases."

The first step would be to modify the attitudes of health professionals, since, as he said, many doctors think that diabetes cannot be prevented with lifestyle changes.

Source: Annals of Internal Medicine, July 13, 2015.

(Reuters Health)