Lessons from the American Diabetes Association

Three big studies announced results this year. Each was designed to determine if aggressive blood sugar control would reduce the risk of having a heart attack in people with type 2 diabetes. This is an important question since most people with T2DM will die of a heart attack or stroke at a younger age than people without diabetes. Aggressive control meant blood sugars under 100 mg/dl and hemoglobin A1c under 6.5%

The tightly controlled groups fared no better than the groups whose A1c was 7.5-8% for the frequency of heart attack, stroke or death from any cause. There was some indication that people who had diabetes for less than 7 years or who had healthy hearts to begin with were less likely to have a heart event if their A1c was under 7%

It was fairly evident that lower blood pressures and lower cholesterol definitely reduced risk of heart disease regardless of level of diabetes control. The results were so hot off the press the researchers did not have time to analyse if lower A1c helped to prevent or stop progression of eye, kidney and nerve damage.

More in the next few days.