TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Go Easy Treating Diabetes

ADVERTISEMENT

The Associated Press

Published: June 7, 2008

NEW YORK - Aggressively treating diabetes doesn't prevent heart problems and deaths any better than standard treatment for lowering blood sugar, Australian researchers reported Friday.

It's the second large study, involving thousands of patients, to show no heart benefit from drastically lowering diabetics' blood sugar levels. Experts said doctors should stick to the recommended target levels.

Heart disease is the cause of death for two-thirds of diabetics. Researchers tried pushing blood sugar down to near-normal levels to see if that would protect the hearts of high-risk patients with Type 2 diabetes.

The Australian study showed no difference in the number of heart attacks, strokes and heart-related deaths between groups who got intensive or standard care. A U.S. study that was stopped this year also showed no benefit and in addition reported an unexplained higher number of deaths among those treated aggressively.

The Australian study showed one positive result - a one-fifth reduction in kidney problems, a common complication of diabetes, compared to normal care.

Both studies were released Friday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT