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Study Links Heart Risk Factors to Diabetes
Study Links Heart Risk Factors to Diabetes -- Posted by Gumbo on 02-16-05 05:33
ADA Comments:
For decades, people with so-called juvenile diabetes have been told that
controlling their blood sugar was all they could do to prevent nerve damage
that can lead to the amputation of a foot or leg. But a large new British
study suggests they should follow the same advice given to other diabetics:
Don't smoke, and watch your weight and blood pressure. These heart disease
risk factors were almost as important as blood-sugar levels in predicting
which diabetics would develop nerve problems. In light of the findings,
diabetes experts said cholesterol-lowering statin drugs and other heart
disease treatments should be studied
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
27-JAN-2005
Study Links Heart Risk Factors to Diabetes
For decades, people with so-called juvenile diabetes have been told that
controlling their blood sugar was all they could do to prevent nerve damage
that can lead to the amputation of a foot or leg.
But a large new British study suggests they should follow the same advice
given to other diabetics: Don't smoke, and watch your weight and blood
pressure.
These heart disease risk factors were almost as important as blood-sugar
levels in predicting which diabetics would develop nerve problems.
In light of the findings, diabetes experts said cholesterol-lowering statin
drugs and other heart disease treatments should be studied to see if they
can help stave off or slow the progression of nerve damage in diabetics.
Of the 18 million Americans who have diabetes, about 5 percent to 10 percent
have Type 1, sometimes called juvenile diabetes, though it can strike at any
age. It occurs when the body cannot make enough insulin, the hormone needed
to convert food into energy.
It differs from the more common Type 2, which is linked to obesity and
occurs when the body cannot use the insulin it makes. Type 2 diabetes can be
prevented or delayed by losing weight, eating a healthy diet and exercising.
But those steps were not thought to do much to prevent complications in Type
1 patients.
Nerve damage is a painful and disabling complication caused by poor
circulation in the hands, arms, feet and legs. A third or more of Type 1
diabetics develop serious nerve damage, and many undergo an amputation.
British researchers selected 1,172 Type 1 patients throughout Europe and
monitored their smoking habits, body weight, blood pressure, and cholesterol
and triglyceride levels over seven years. Nearly a quarter of them developed
nerve damage during that time.
After adjusting for how well patients' blood-sugar levels were controlled,
scientists found an apparent connection beween nerve damage and risk factors
for heart disease. For example, patients who had high blood pressure were
twice as likely to develop nerve problems.
The study, led by Dr. Solomon Tesfaye of the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals in
England, appears in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.
"It emphasizes that you have to treat the whole patient," said Dr. Martin
Abrahamson, acting chief medical officer of the Joslin Diabetes Center in
Boston, who was not connected to the study. "You can't just treat the
glucose. You also have to look at all the cardiovascular risk factors."
---
On the Net:
New England Journal of Medicine: http://www.nejm.org
American Diabetes Association: http://www.diabetes.org
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation: http://www.jdrf.org
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not
be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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