Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of mortality in Europe. Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus are at an increased risk for developing cardiovascular diseases. In these patients a firm intervention on the modifiable risk factors may lead to a significant decrease of developing cardiovascular diseases, and so, improving the disease prognosis. Lifestyle optimization, the first intervention recommended by the guidelines in patients with diabetes might have an important impact in several recognized risk factors for cardiovascular diseases.
We evaluated the impact of intensive lifestyle optimization on different risk factors in a cohort of 48 patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. We compared the values obtained after 26 weeks of intensive lifestyle optimization (diet, exercise and habits) to ones measured at baseline.
We observed significant improvements regarding the quality of glycemic control (average decrease of HbA1c of 0.6%; p<0.001), body mass index (average decrease with 0.8 kg/m2; p=0.028), blood pressure (significant decreases in both systolic and diastolic components) and lipid profile (decreases in total and LDL cholesterol, triglycerides and increases in HDL cholesterol).
Based on our results we can conclude that a firm intervention regarding lifestyle optimization in patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus decreases significantly the overall cardiovascular risk, leading so to an improved disease prognosis, life expectancy and quality.