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Blood
Sugar Can Gauge Risk
of Death from Heart Disease
NEW YORK --
Measuring levels of sugar in the blood can help doctors predict
if a patient is at risk of developing heart disease, study findings
show.
The report
in the Jan. 6 issue of the British Medical Journal suggests that
blood glucose (sugar) may join the ranks of cholesterol and blood
pressure as indicators of heart disease risk. The study included
more than 4,600 men from England aged 45 to 79.
"(Blood glucose)
measurement may identify individuals at higher absolute risk of
heart disease who might benefit most from established preventive
interventions such as cholesterol lowering or antihypertensive
medication," lead study author Dr. Kay-Tee Khaw, from the University
of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, told Reuters Health.
Men with type
2 diabetes, a disorder in which blood glucose can soar to dangerously
high levels if not controlled, were more than three times as likely
as men without diabetes to die from heart disease, the report
indicates.
Diabetic men
were more than twice as likely to die of all causes compared with
men without diabetes. And as blood glucose increased, the risk
of dying climbed higher regardless of age, weight, blood pressure,
cholesterol and smoking status.
Even men who
had not been diagnosed with diabetes but who had high blood glucose
had a greater risk of death, findings show. People with blood
glucose below 5 percent were at lowest risk of death.
The authors
point out that about 70 percent of the U.K. population have blood
glucose levels between 5 percent and 6.9 percent. Therefore, lifestyle
changes such as exercising or adopting a healthier diet might
be enough to lower their risk of dying prematurely.
The investigators
estimate that a reduction in blood glucose by just 0.1 percent
could reduce mortality rates by about 5 percent in Western countries.
People with
type 2 diabetes lose their sensitivity insulin, the hormone that
controls how much sugar remains in the blood and how much sugar
is deposited into cells throughout the body. Over the long term,
high blood glucose can lead to heart disease, kidney failure and
blindness.
SOURCE:
British Medical Journal 2001;322:15-18.
Reference
Source 89
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