Hello, I’m Dr. William Berger, owner and founder of Northeast Medical Practice. We are a primary care, weight management, and aesthetic medicine practice located in Great Neck, New York.
Good afternoon, I’m Irina Berger. I’m a co-founder of Northeast Medical Practice and also the administrative director. Dr. Berger, there are multiple studies done in terms of correlation between weight loss and diabetes. Would you be kind enough to elaborate and talk a little bit about those new studies?
Of course. I’ll talk very briefly about two trials. One is called the DIRECT trial. In this study, they tracked the patients for two years. They created a pretty intensive lifestyle change program utilizing monthly follow-ups, a nutrition specialist, a nurse, as well as meal replacement products to help the patients lose weight. By the one-year mark, 46% of these patients who had diabetes when they started the program had remission of their diabetes. At the two-year mark, 36% of the patients still did. It’s tough to keep everyone on the vigorous regimen for two years, but 46% by one year, and 36% at the two-year mark, which means over a third of the patients had remission of their diabetes just by utilizing lifestyle changes and meal replacement products.
The likelihood of diabetes remission was also correlated with how much weight loss happened and when. A good amount of weight loss, like 10% in the first month or two, was highly correlated with an increased likelihood of remission. So hitting it hard early on, getting good weight loss, and maintaining it over time kept these patients in remission.
There was another study done in the UK with a similar protocol and results. At the five-year mark, they showed 30% of their patients had remission of diabetes. From the perspective of our practice, we do pretty similar things here. We have intensive follow-ups in our weight management program, at least once a month, perform health coaching, nutrition counseling, and utilize meal replacement products like the Robard system, which includes bars, shakes, soups, and other foods to help control caloric intake.
The bottom line is, with vigorous lifestyle intervention, it’s possible to have a significant impact on diabetes and even reverse it for about a third of patients, according to these studies.
It’s interesting because throughout coaching, patients always say, “Oh, I’m genetically predisposed, my parents had diabetes, my grandparents had diabetes.” But this clearly shows that, yes, maybe you have a predisposition, but it’s really in your power to take charge and reverse the diabetes.
We’ve seen examples with our patients. One patient comes to mind; he recently lost about 20 to 25 pounds. He was working out twice a day, eating 1,000 calories a day, following a keto diet, and we had him on Mounjaro. He came with very severe diabetes, but with the vigorous intervention, I’ve been able to take him off his blood pressure medicine and decrease his dose of Mounjaro down to the lowest one. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get him off it entirely. This also illustrates the power of the vigorous lifestyle interventions we implement here.
Irina: It’s funny because I was asking him, “What if you don’t work out?” He said, “I’m already programmed. If I don’t work out at a certain time, I still do it later. It’s like brushing my teeth.” Changing habits is powerful, and that’s what we reinforce for all our patients in the weight management program, whether or not we utilize medication. A strong lifestyle program needs to be in place.
Dr Berger: I hope you found this informative. Please reach out to us at Northeast Medical Practice, 516-604-3418, or visit our website at northeastmedicalpractice.com. We look forward to seeing you in the office. Bear in mind, all the things we share in our videos and blog posts are for educational purposes only. We have not yet established a doctor-patient relationship, but we look forward to hearing from you soon. Thank you.
