Lifestyle Therapy for Youth With Type 2 Diabetes

Background: Little is known about the efficacy of intensive lifestyle therapy (i.e. increased physical activity and dietary changes) for the management of glycemia and cardiometabolic risk factors in children and adolescents with type 2 diabetes (T2DM). Our hypothesis is that education regarding healthy lifestyle changes will significantly reduce blood sugars in youth with T2DM that do not require insulin therapy. Our secondary hypothesis is that the intensive lifestyle therapy will cause quick and sustained reductions in health risk measured by body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, waist circumference, LDL cholesterol, serum triglycerides and apolipoprotein B.