Diabetes Health Key: Blood-Sugar Control
Diabetes Health Key: Blood-Sugar Control
Tight Control of Blood Sugar Keeps Arteries Unclogged, Reverses Early Kidney Trouble
Some of the news was bad. Even though these patients were only in their mid-30s, they had serious thickening of the arteries -- an early warning of heart disease and stroke. The good news: Those who kept their blood sugar under tight control had significantly less thickening of the arteries.
"Nothing about this new finding changes what we ask patients to do. But it reinforces our recommendations for intensive management of blood sugar," Nathan tells WebMD. "Patients with diabetes usually do succumb to heart disease. Now we know that with tight control of blood sugar, not only can we prevent other diseases, but we also have a good chance cutting the risk of heart disease."
Bruce A. Perkins, MD, MPH, noticed something funny about his type 1 diabetes patients at Harvard's Joslin Diabetes Center. Many of them had a sign of oncoming kidney disease called microalbuminuria -- increased protein in the urine. That's not unusual. But conventional wisdom says that this never goes away, although treatment can keep it from getting worse. Perkins' patients often did get better.
Perkins isn't the first doctor to notice this, so he designed a study to look at the issue. Over six years, he and colleagues studied 386 patients with microalbuminuria. They found that over the course of time, nearly 60% of patients improved.
The reason? They kept their blood sugar under control. In fact, type 1 diabetes patients were three times more likely to get over microalbuminuria if they controlled their blood sugar, lowered their cholesterol and blood-fat (triglyceride) levels, and lowered their blood pressure.
Warning: This only worked if the problem was caught in time. Once more serious kidney problems occur, the damage is done -- end-stage kidney disease is inevitable.
"This drives home the absolute importance of regular screening for microalbuminuria in people with type 1 diabetes," Perkins tells WebMD. "The chances for remission are present for only a short amount of time. Our theory is that the [protein] that leaks into the kidneys is toxic. So if you catch it earlier, it is easier to get rid of."
Diabetes Health Key: Blood-Sugar Control
Tight Control of Blood Sugar Keeps Arteries Unclogged, Reverses Early Kidney Trouble
High Blood Sugar = Heart Disease continued...
Some of the news was bad. Even though these patients were only in their mid-30s, they had serious thickening of the arteries -- an early warning of heart disease and stroke. The good news: Those who kept their blood sugar under tight control had significantly less thickening of the arteries.
"Nothing about this new finding changes what we ask patients to do. But it reinforces our recommendations for intensive management of blood sugar," Nathan tells WebMD. "Patients with diabetes usually do succumb to heart disease. Now we know that with tight control of blood sugar, not only can we prevent other diseases, but we also have a good chance cutting the risk of heart disease."
Reversing Kidney Disease
Bruce A. Perkins, MD, MPH, noticed something funny about his type 1 diabetes patients at Harvard's Joslin Diabetes Center. Many of them had a sign of oncoming kidney disease called microalbuminuria -- increased protein in the urine. That's not unusual. But conventional wisdom says that this never goes away, although treatment can keep it from getting worse. Perkins' patients often did get better.
Perkins isn't the first doctor to notice this, so he designed a study to look at the issue. Over six years, he and colleagues studied 386 patients with microalbuminuria. They found that over the course of time, nearly 60% of patients improved.
The reason? They kept their blood sugar under control. In fact, type 1 diabetes patients were three times more likely to get over microalbuminuria if they controlled their blood sugar, lowered their cholesterol and blood-fat (triglyceride) levels, and lowered their blood pressure.
Warning: This only worked if the problem was caught in time. Once more serious kidney problems occur, the damage is done -- end-stage kidney disease is inevitable.
"This drives home the absolute importance of regular screening for microalbuminuria in people with type 1 diabetes," Perkins tells WebMD. "The chances for remission are present for only a short amount of time. Our theory is that the [protein] that leaks into the kidneys is toxic. So if you catch it earlier, it is easier to get rid of."
