People with high-risk type 2 diabetes on intensive medication use to control blood sugar levels can achieve better control by following specific dietary advice as well. A healthier diet still has something to offer, over and above using diabetes medicines, according to research by the University of Otago carried out in 94 patients with poorly controlled diabetes. The patients were divided into two groups which both received optimal medical care, but one group also received personal dietary advice from a dietitian. This group had better control of glucose at the end of the six-month study. Some were even able to reduce their medications. Study lead author Dr Kirsten Coppell says the research indicates that providing intensive evidence-based dietary advice could help people with diabetes stave off the disease’s often devastating and life-shortening complications, such as kidney disease, gangrene, heart disease and blindness. Rather than focusing on a strict diet, the advice was tailored to match each participant’s circumstances. Dr Coppell acknowledges that sustaining such lifestyle changes can be difficult and support from family members and professionals is important to success. The Lifestyle Over and Above Drugs in Diabetes (LOADD) study was led out of the University’s Edgar National Centre for Diabetes Research and published in the 20 July 2010 British Medical Journal.