A new study has revealed that patients suffering from type 2 diabetes and often fluctuating blood sugar levels are also at an increased risk of suffering from heart disease.
ANI, Washington
DONE ON 14 FEBRUARY 2021 16:16 IST
Patients suffering from type 2 diabetes and severe fluctuations in their blood sugar levels are at increased risk for heart disease – the findings of a new study indicate.
The findings 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 over the past two to three months, of less than 7 percent to reduce the complications of diabetes, such as heart disease.
However, studies, including these, have shown that wide fluctuations in blood sugar levels may be a better predictor of diabetic complications than the A1c reading during any doctor’s office visit.
“The underlying mechanism for the link between wide variations in blood sugar levels between physician appointments and a high risk of heart disease in patients with type 2 diabetes is unclear,” said Gang Hu, MD, PhD, associate professor and director, Epidemiology Laboratory for Chronic Diseases said. at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center.
“It is possible that episodes of very low blood sugar may be related,” said Dr. Hu said. Research has shown that large variations in blood sugar levels are associated with poor health outcomes and even death. A 2017 Johns Hopkins study found that one-third of people with diabetes were admitted to the hospital due to a severe episode of low blood sugar within three years of the incident.
“We recommend that patients and their physicians apply therapies that can reduce the wide swing in blood sugar levels and the associated episodes of severe low blood sugar,” said Dr. Hu said.
“Our findings suggest that measuring the fluctuation in blood hemoglobin A1c levels over a specific period of time – for example, six months to a year – may serve as a complementary target for blood sugar,” he concluded.
Follow up more stories Facebook and Twitter
This story was published by a wire agency without modifying the text. Only the heading has been changed.
Near