My Diabetes Information Blogs
Heart Disease and Health Risks Active at Pre-Diabetes Stage
06/26/07
Prediabetes and Impaired Glucose Tolerance, Prevention, General
A study of more than 10,000 Australians pointed out how heart damage and disease begin even before diabetes sets in with many people. The obvious conclusion is that physicians and health care professionals should aggressively detect and treat pre-diabetes. This study published in the journal Circulation included some of the following findings:
- Diabetes and pre-diabetes accounted for 65 percent of all heart disease deaths in the group.
- Participants who were pre-diabetic had 2.5 times higher risk of death from heart problems than those who metabolized glucose normally.
- The risk of death for pre-diabetics and diabetics is similar.
"The five-year risk of cardiac mortality was 2.6 times higher among people who had diabetes and was 2.5 times higher in those with impaired fasting glucose," wrote lead author Elizabeth Barr.
The findings follow other major diabetes studies released last week. Canadian researchers found that type two diabetics had double the risk of having a stroke in the first five years of diagnosis. Another United States study showed the death rate for men with diabetes had fallen sharply since the early 1970s, but medicine had not made the same progress for women during that time.