MedPageToday has some details:
“Type-2 diabetics lived nearly 8 years longer when treated with an intensive, multifactorial approach that employed behavioral and pharmacological interventions.
The 160 patients with type-2 diabetes mellitus and microalbuminuria, now followed for 21 years, received either conventional or intensified therapy.
Thirty-eight intensive-therapy patients died during the follow-up period compared with 55 conventional-therapy patient deaths during the same time. This translated to a median survival period 7.9 years longer for the intensive-therapy cohort, as well as a median delay of 8.1 years to a first cardiovascular event, the investigators reported in the journal Diabetologia.
“The outcome of our study is very encouraging and emphasizes the need for early and intensified treatment of multiple modifiable risk factors for a poor prognosis of patients with type 2 diabetes,” said lead study author Peter Gaede, MD, of the University of Southern Denmark in Odense, in a statement.”
Source: Intensive Program Extends Lifespan in T2D Patients | Medpage Today
Parker here.
Study participants were northern Europeans (Danes) who had small amounts of protein (albumin) in their urine and were mostly in their 50s when the long-term study started.
Medical intervention included diet changes, drugs for diabetes/blood pressure/lipids, and exercise. Therapy for the intensive therapy group was “target-driven, with stepwise implementation of both behavioral and pharmacological treatment following a structured approach.”
If you’re a researcher and want to test how my diabetes diets would perform in a study like this, contact me for a discount on books.
Steve Parker, M.D.
Paleo Diabetic 
I use the following line which seems to motivate people rather well: ‘If you don’t like the pain in your thumb, gimme the damned hammer. See, doesn’t hurt so much now does it?’ The point is fatsoism is self-inflicted damage. There is no drug or supplement that can overcome the relentless power of stuffing your face. So, deal with it or stop wasting my time. Because otherwise, it’s all downhill for you buddy. The good times are over and the end times approacheth. You ate your lazy way into this and you will have to summon up the will to eat back out of it. Sort of a ‘tough love’ line but most people have been going round and round on this trying every pill (half halfheartedly) or some programme and they become numb. They really don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel. So, they need a good whacking to wake them up. Just gimme the damned hammer. Now, you did that. The power is in your hands. Get on with it!