Study: Blood-sugar control lowers diabetics' risks

Diabetics who tightly control their blood sugar -- even if only for the first decade after their condition is diagnosed -- have lower risks of heart attack, death and other complications 10 or more years later, a large follow-up study has found.

Tight glucose control, even for the first decade after diagnosis, can carry strong benefits, a study shows." Tight glucose control, even for the first decade after diagnosis, can carry strong benefits, a study shows.

The discovery of this "legacy effect" may put new emphasis on rigorous treatment when people first learn they have Type 2 diabetes, the most common form and the type linked to obesity.

Doctors warn that people should not let their blood sugar spin out of control -- that could have serious health consequences.

"What you don't want is for people to think that they had a period of good glucose control and then they allow their blood glucose to go high -- that would be disadvantageous," said Dr. Stephen Davis, head of Vanderbilt University's diabetes and endocrinology division, who had no role in the study.

Results were published online Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine and were being presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes meeting in Rome.

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