Type-2 diabetics have often been told that eating healthy and exercising more will improve their health. Now a new study says a healthy lifestyle, along with a drug and vitamin regimen, will reduce diabetes complications by as much as half.

 The study found that a healthy diet and exercise plan, adopted in combination with a regimen of vitamins, aspirin and medication, can reduce by up to 50 per cent complications such as heart disease, kidney failure, nerve damage and blindness.

"We think it's the additive effects of combining all these methods that produced such dramatic results," says study author Oluf Pedersen, of the University of Copenhagen's Steno Diabetes Center. "A 50 per cent relative reduction in cardiovascular disease disorders has never been shown before in Type 2 diabetics -- let alone those at the highest risk of these problems."

Along with encouraging diabetics to eat better and exercise more, the plan also incorporates the daily intake of several vitamins, aspirin, and drugs to lower blood pressure or cholesterol.

The plan includes:

• a diet of at least six servings of vegetables,
• one serving of omega-3 rich fish a week
• no more than 30 per cent of total calories from fat
• at least 30 minutes of light to moderate exercise, three to five times a week
• quitting smoking
• consuming the equivalent of a half-aspirin daily
• consuming 400 micrograms of folic acid daily
• consuming 100 micrograms of chromium picolate daily
• taking a drug to lower blood pressure or cholesterol, depending on need.

The combination therapy was developed at the University of Copenhagen and tested for eight years in 160 diabetics facing the highest risk of heart disease and other diabetes-related complications. The results are available in this week's issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.

In Pederson's study, half the participants followed the combination program for around eight years. The other participants followed the conventional recommendations by the Danish Medical Association, which included the same exercise and non-smoking regimen, along with a diet with a little more fat, and fewer servings of vegetables. They did not receive the drugs.

The combined-plan participants cut by half their rate of death from cardiovascular disease, kidney failure, and blindness resulting from diabetes-induced blood vessel problems. As well, 70 per cent of combination therapy participants achieved "low-risk" cholesterol levels, 60 per cent reached ideal triglycerides levels, and more than half achieved good control of their blood pressure.

By comparison, fewer than half of those using the conventional approach met these goals.

Type-2 diabetics die from heart disease three times more frequently than non-diabetics and have a life expectancy five to 10 years less than non-diabetics -- largely because of their increased risk of heart disease and stroke.

Doctors often say a diabetic person who has never suffered a heart attack has the same high risk of suffering a future heart attack as an individual who has already had one.