A new study published on March 31, 2026, demonstrates that reducing or discontinuing diabetes medications (deprescribing) is feasible and safe for patients with type 2 diabetes when lifestyle medicine is integrated into routine primary care.
Key findings:
- A retrospective review of 650 adults with type 2 diabetes found that 6.3% of patients safely reduced or stopped their glucose-lowering medications after showing improvements in weight and blood glucose due to lifestyle-informed care in primary care settings
- These medication reductions happened naturally during routine primary care, not in intensive programs or specialty clinics
- Patients who deprescribed saw an average BMI decrease of 2.2 kg/m² and a blood glucose drop of 50.5 mg/dL, with no adverse events linked to the deprescribing process
- The most common medication changes were metformin dose reduction (34%), metformin discontinuation (19.5%), and insulin dose reduction (19.5%)
- The study suggests that incorporating lifestyle medicine into primary care could lead to significant medication burden reduction, lower costs, and fewer side effects for millions of Americans with type 2 diabetes if these outcomes are replicated nationally