Doctor-supervised exercise as effective as insulin in controlling type 2 diabetes

• In what is claimed to be a world first, a Sydney hospital has reversed the severity of type 2 diabetes in obese patients through exercise rather than medication.
• Dr Nic Kormas from Concord Hospital's department of endocrinology and metabolism, said he had found 330 minutes of exercise a week, supervised by doctors, reduced blood pressure and cholesterol levels to normal levels in sufferers.
• It also achieved blood glucose control equivalent to starting insulin therapy.
• Their medication was cut by an average of half with some patients stopping insulin therapy and other medications altogether.
• Dr Kormas said the results for the patients, most of whom had suffered diabetes for 10 years, were outstanding.
• "They have exceeded our expectations because these are very complex patients who on average have five medical conditions, which includes their diabetes so therefore these patients are on multiple medications, they have a lot of problems and it is very difficult for them to get good results," he said.
• "If one in 20 Australian adults can benefit from this program then it would definitely be in the interests of our corporate administrators to expand the program because we are getting better results than traditional service (using medication)," he said.
• "You have to remember that the patients coming here were actually receiving traditional care and their diabetes wasn't under control and now their diabetes is under control."
• For one of the patients, 53-year-old Ida Mow of Rouse Hill, the program has released her from most medication and two insulin shots a day.
• "I lost a brother and a sister very young, they were both diabetics," she said.
• "The program is hard but I have to keep it up for my health.