A new study has found that patients who suffer from type 2 diabetes and often have fluctuating blood sugar levels are also at increased risk of heart disease.
ANIWashington
PUBLISHED ON FEBRUARY 14, 2021 16:16 IST
Patients, who suffer from type 2 diabetes and experience extreme fluctuations in their blood sugar levels, have an increased risk of heart disease – the findings of a new study suggest.
The results of the study were published in the journal ‘Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism’. The study looked at 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 past two to three months, of less than 7 percent to reduce diabetes complications, such as heart disease.
However, studies, including this one, have shown that large variations in blood sugar levels may be a better predictor of diabetic complications than reading A1c at any doctor’s appointment.
“The underlying mechanism for the relationship between wide variations in blood sugar levels between doctor visits and high risk of heart disease in patients with type 2 diabetes is unclear,” said Gang Hu, MD, PhD, Associate Professor and Director of Chronic Disease Epidemiology Laboratory at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center.
“It is possible that episodes of very low blood sugar levels may be the connection,” added Dr. Hu. Research has shown that wide variations in blood sugar levels are associated with health problems and even death. A 2017 study by Johns Hopkins found that a third of people with diabetes hospitalized for a severe episode of low blood sugar died three years after the incident.
“We recommend that patients and their doctors implement therapies that can reduce large fluctuations in blood sugar levels and the associated episodes of low blood sugar levels,” said Dr. Hu.
“Our findings suggest that measuring fluctuations in hemoglobin A1c levels in the blood over a specific period – from six months to a year, for example – could serve as an additional blood sugar target,” he concluded.
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This story was published from a wire agency feed with no text changes. Only the title has been changed.
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