Washington
The Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) is a researh
study being conducted at twenty-five medical centers around the
country. Sponsored by the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH)
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
(NIDDK), the program hopes to prove that type 2 diabetes can be
prevented by altering one’s lifestyle and/or medication.
“This is the first program of its type where we are actively
seeking to find a way to prevent a disease and not just treat it,” said
David Nathan, M.D., study chairman of the DPP and director of the
Diabetes Center at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
Although the six-year study began last year, research sites are
still recruiting participants. In fact, participants will be recruited
for two more years.
Medlantic Clinical Research Center is collaborating on the project
with Howard University, the only historically Black college or
university involved in the study. Wayman Cheatham, M.D., from Howard
University School of Medicine’s Department of Endocrinology, codirects
the Washington, D.C., study with Robert Ratner, M.D, head of Medlantic.
Nationally, 4,000 volunteers will be screened for the program and
they must be suffering from a condition known as impaired glucose
tolerance (IGT). People with IGT have blood sugars which are higher
than normal but not high enough to be considered diabetes. A major risk
factor for type 2 diabetics, approximately 21 million Americans have
IGT. However, according to NIDDK, most them do not know they have the
condition.
The program is designed for people with IGT who have fasting
glucose levels between 95 and 125. Fasting glucose levels are
blood-sugar measurements taken after a person has not eaten for twelve
hours. Fasting glucose levels above 125 are considered diabetic; levels
between 110 and 125 are considered Impaired Fasting Glucose; levels
between 70 and 110 are considered normal; and levels below 70 are
considered too low, or hypoglycemic.
