Tight Blood Sugar Control improves Mortality for Type I Diabetics

Historically, type I diabetes has been associated with an increased risk of early death and other severe long-term health complications. A new study examined whether maintaining tighter control of blood sugar levels over time, can help lower the long-term risk of death in these patients. “The long-term follow up was to determine whether the early benefits we saw with intensive therapy would play out in terms of reductions in vision loss, kidney failure, reductions in heart disease.” Dr. David Nathan and co-authors followed two groups of patients with type I diabetes from 1983 to 1993. One group maintained tight control of their blood sugars. The other group controlled blood sugars more loosely. Researchers continued to follow the patients for an average of 27 years. They assessed whether those who maintained tighter blood sugar control early on also reduced their risk of death. “Although the entire group is doing quite well, including those who were originally on conventional therapy, those with intensive therapy have a reduction in mortality by about 33%.” The study appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association.