A new study has shown that patients who suffer from type 2 diabetes and often have an oscillating blood sugar level have an increased risk of suffering from heart disease as well.
YEARS, Washington
PUBLISHED ON FEBRUARY 14, 2021 16:16 IST
Patients, who suffer from type 2 diabetes and have extreme fluctuations in blood sugar levels, have an increased risk of heart disease – suggests the findings of a new study.
The study’s findings 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 level, the average blood sugar level of less than 7% in the last two to three months, to reduce complications caused by diabetes, such as heart disease.
However, studies, including this one, have shown that wide variations in blood sugar can be a better predictor of diabetic complications than reading A1c at any visit to a single doctor’s office.
“The underlying mechanism for the relationship between large variations in blood sugar levels between physician appointments and the high risk of heart disease in patients with type 2 diabetes is unclear,” said Gang Hu, MD, PhD, Associate Professor and director, Chronic Disease Epidemiology Laboratory at Pennington Biomedical Research Center.
“Episodes of very low blood sugar may be the connection,” Dr. Hu added. Research has shown that large variations in blood sugar levels are associated with poor health 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 blood sugar fluctuations and episodes associated with low blood sugar,” said Dr. Hu.
“Our findings suggest that measuring fluctuations in hemoglobin A1c levels in the blood over time – for example, from six months to a year – could serve as an additional target for blood sugar,” he concluded.
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