Here's what we know about controlling blood glucose (blood sugar) in people with diabetes: It's not easy, but it can be done. It requires vigilance and resolve. And it can save your life.
A recent study by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has answered one of the most important questions about diabetes: Can glucose control lower the risk of heart attacks and strokes? The answer is yes - intensive glucose control can reduce the risk by more than half. From 1983 to 1989, the NIH-sponsored Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT) randomly assigned a large number of people with diabetes to an intensive or conventional treatment group. Those in the intensive group were held to a stricter level of glucose control and were required to self-monitor their own glucose levels throughout the day. The DCCT ended in 1993 after conclusively demonstrating that intensive control better protected against damage to the eyes (retinopathy), kidneys (nephropathy), and nerves (neuropathy).
In 1994, the vast majority of DCCT participants were enrolled in the Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions and Complications (EDIC) study. This follow-up study simply tracked participants' health; no interventions were provided. Diabetes care was obtained from participants' own physicians.
In the most recent results released late last year in the New England Journal of Medicine, EDIC investigators found that patients who underwent intensive diabetes management in the DCCT study now show 42% fewer cases of total cardiovascular disease and 57% fewer heart attacks, strokes, or cardiovascular deaths.
Amazingly, more than a decade after they left the DCCT and returned to the care of their own doctors, participants are still benefiting from the relatively brief period of intense blood glucose control they had during the study, and they continue to have significantly lower risks for cardiovascular disease, as well as retinopathy, nephropathy, and neuropathy. This is dramatic confirmation of the role of glucose control in reducing the rate of cardiovascular disease in people with diabetes.
The National Diabetes Education Program was launched in 1997 to spread the word about the benefits of glucose control shown by the DCCT. Now, almost ten years later, we know that glucose control can reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes - the #1 killer of people with diabetes - by more than half. And so we rededicate our outreach to people with diabetes, offering tools and resources to help them control their blood glucose.