Aggressive Diabetes Treatment May Increase Death Risk
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
WASHINGTON — Aggressively driving blood sugar levels as low as possible in high-risk diabetes patients appears to increase the risk of dying from a heart attack or stroke, according to major government study that stunned and disappointed experts.
The startling discovery, announced yesterday, prompted federal health officials to immediately halt one part of the massive trial so thousands of the type 2 diabetes patients in the study could be notified and switched to less intensive, less risky treatment.
Ms. Nabel, director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, which is sponsoring the study, and other experts stressed that the benefits of blood sugar control have been well-established for diabetics and patients should not make any changes in their care without consulting their doctors. The findings will force experts to reassess their thinking about how to treat one of the nation’s leading health problems.
