According to the latest study, intense treatment to lower blood sugar in patients with diabetes could prove nearly as harmful as allowing glucose levels to remain high. Cardiff researchers looked at nearly 50,000 patients with type 2 diabetes and found the lowest glucose levels linked to a heightened risk of death. Significant differences in death rates between patients on insulin and those taking tablets are also flagged up. But there could be various explanations for this, experts noted.
Patients taking insulin-based treatments have been urged not to stop taking their medication as a result of the study.
Using data from GPs, the team identified 27,965 patients aged 50 and above with type 2 diabetes whose treatment had been intensified to include two oral blood glucose lowering agents – metformin and sulphonylurea. A further 20,005 patients who had been moved on to treatment which included insulin were added to the study. Patients, whose HbA1c levels – the proportion of red blood cells with glucose attached to them – were around 7.5%, ran the lowest risk of dying from any cause.
