A new study has found that patients who suffer from type 2 diabetes and who often have fluctuating blood sugar levels also have a higher risk of heart disease.
YEARS, Washington
PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 14, 2021 AT 16:16 IST
Patients, who suffer from type 2 diabetes and experience extreme changes in blood sugar levels, have a higher risk of heart disease, the findings of a new study suggest.
The study’s findings were published in the journal Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism. The study examined more than 29,000 patients with type 2 diabetes over a two-year period. Patients who already had heart disease were excluded.
The American Diabetes Association recommends that adults with diabetes maintain an A1c, the average blood sugar level in the last two to three months, less than 7% to reduce complications from diabetes, such as heart disease. .
However, studies, including this one, have shown that large changes in blood sugar levels can be a better predictor of diabetic complications than reading A1c at any consultation in the doctor’s office.
“The underlying mechanism for the relationship between wide variations in blood sugar levels between physician consultations and the high risk of heart disease in patients with type 2 diabetes is unclear,” Gang Hu said. MD, PhD, Associate Professor and Director, Chronic Disease Epidemiology Laboratory at Pennington Biomedical Research Center.
“It is possible that episodes of severely low blood sugar may be the connection,” Dr. Hu.Research has shown that wide variations in blood sugar levels are associated with poor health outcomes and even death. A 2017 Johns Hopkins study found that a third of people with diabetes hospitalized for a severe episode of blood sugar died within three years of the incident.
“We recommend that patients and their physicians implement therapies that can reduce broad changes in blood sugar levels and associated episodes of low blood sugar,” said Dr. Hu.
“Our findings suggest that measuring changes in hemoglobin A1c levels in the blood over a specific time period (from six months to a year, for example) could serve as a supplemental target for blood sugar,” he concluded.
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