How People With Type 2 Diabetes Can Lower Their Risk of Health Problems

A growing number of studies suggest that getting a handle on a few key risk factors can bring type 2 diabetes under control. Lowering blood sugar, for instance, reduces the risk of additional health problems, such as heart disease and stroke related to the disease. But most of these studies have focused on studying one risk factor — like blood sugar, cholesterol or blood pressure — at a time. In a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers analyzed what happens to death rates and other health problems when people control up to five known risk factors for type 2 diabetes. The study reviewed the health of more than 1.6 million people in Sweden, nearly 300,000 of whom had type 2 diabetes. The database included information on the levels of five risk factors linked to the condition: blood sugar, LDL cholesterol, kidney proteins, smoking and blood pressure. The researchers compared health outcomes, including early death, heart attack and stroke, among people with type 2 diabetes to those without the chronic disease. They team, led by Dr. Aidin Rawshani, from the department of molecular and clinical medicine at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, found that people with type 2 diabetes who successfully followed current health guidelines for keeping their risk factors under control were less likely to have a heart attack than even people without type 2 diabetes; their risk was 16% lower compared to the general population after 5.7 years. ...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized healthytime medicine Source Type: news