Research

Adherence

Intensive lifestyle intervention (ILI) involving weight loss and increased physical activity does not reduce the rate of major cardiovascular events in adults with type 2 diabetes and a history of cardiovascular disease, and may be associated with a higher incidence of nonfatal myocardial infarction compared to diabetes support and education.

If you have type 2 diabetes and a history of heart disease, intensive lifestyle changes focusing on heavy weight loss and high-volume exercise may not protect your heart and could potentially increase the risk of a non-fatal heart attack compared to standard education. Consult your doctor before starting intense exercise programs to ensure they are safe for your specific cardiac condition.

ModerateRefutesMEDIUM confidence
Among participants with a history of CVD, the ILI group had a nonsignificantly higher incidence of the primary CVD outcome compared with the DSE group... Significant interaction P values were present for MI (P = 0.043), specifically nonfatal MI (P = 0.035)... The effect was due to higher rates of nonfatal MI in the ILI group, which contained a physical activity component, among those with baseline CVD.
Cora E. Lewis et al. · Obesity · 2020

Why this rating

Post-hoc exploratory analysis of a large RCT; interaction was nominally significant but not pre-specified as the primary endpoint for this subgroup.

Source

History of Cardiovascular Disease, Intensive Lifestyle Intervention, and Cardiovascular Outcomes in the Look AHEAD Trial

Cora E. Lewis et al. · Obesity · 2020

DOI 10.1002/oby.22676

rct · n=5145Cited 9×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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