Early Glucose Control Benefits Diabetics

Diabetics who keep a tight rein on their glucose levels after diagnosis have a lower risk of heart attack, death and other complications 10 or more years later. The beneficial effects were present even if diabetics only controlled blood sugar levels for the first decade after diagnosis. Those are the findings of a long-term British study recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes.

Researchers hope the study will prompt rigorous treatment for people just diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, the most common type and the one linked to obesity. Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body fails to make sufficient insulin or becomes unable to assimilate what it does make.

It should be pointed out that there are considerable differences between the British study and a U.S. trial halted earlier this year in which a number of diabetics died after significantly lowering their blood sugar. Unlike the British study, the U.S. trial focused on long-term, high-risk diabetics.