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Controlling blood pressure, sugar, cholesterol linked to lower cardiovascular disease.
| While controlling blood pressure, blood sugar and LDL-cholesterol levels reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease in people with diabetes, only 7 percent of diabetic participants in three major heart studies had recommended levels of these three factors, according to research from the Heart Disease Prevention Program. |
| The findings illustrate the need for persons with diabetes to better manage their blood pressure, blood sugar and LDL-cholesterol levels, which are prime indicators of future cardiovascular disease. The diabetic participants surveyed in the UCI review were enrolled in the three heart studies between the late '80s and early 2000s, when treatment was not as good as it is now. Still, more recent data show that only 25 percent of Americans with diabetes achieve all three of these targets. |
| The good news is that those in the heart studies who did control all three factors had a 62 percent lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease, according to study |
| The researchers compared measurements of the three key factors that were in effect at the time - blood pressure under 130/80 mmHg, LDL (or bad) cholesterol less than 100 mg/dL and blood HbA1c (glycated hemoglobin) under 7 percent. Forty-one percent of the study group were on target in one of the three categories; 27 percent had achieved two of the benchmarks; but only 7 percent met the recommended scores in all three. |