Cutting The Risk Of Type 1 Diabetes

United Stated researchers recently revealed an interesting fact that people suffering from type 1 diabetes can cut the dangerous risks of severe complications if they can control their body blood sugar at a normal level. The researchers have found out that efforts to control the blood sugar level at the earlier stages of the juvenile diabetes, a formal name for the type 1 diabetes, works far effective and better than the conventional methods of care at kidney failure, reducing blindness and chronic heart diseases in those who had lived with this disease for a period of 3 decades.

Speaking about this result, Dr. Trevor Orchard, University of Pittsburgh, United States, said that this new result is extremely exciting. He also added that these procedures would cut the risks of major complication by half. Speaking further to a telephonic interview Orchard also quoted that this result is a dramatic improvement and it clearly proves that intense therapy at early stages can be truly beneficial.

It is more shocking to know the fact that Type 1 diabetes is the most deadly form of diabetes and it represents about ten percent of total 180 million diabetes cases globally. The disease mainly occurs when a person’s immune system fails to function as expected and the disease starts destroying the important insulin producing cells in pancreas that are responsible for controlling the blood sugar level. As a result of this the patients suffering from type 1 diabetes need insulin injection daily to control their diabetes which is not the case with the most common form of diabetes the type 2 diabetes – which is caused by lack of proper exercise and obesity.

The research team also said that the treatments and the cure for both these types of diabetes have improved drastically and these include advanced insulin formations, continuous monitoring of glucose level, insulin pumps, better control of the blood pressure and also heart diseases. It also added that the global market for treating these types diabetes was almost $25 billion in the year 2007. The team then compared the overall rates of treating the eye, cardiovascular and kidney complication in the patients who were suffering from type 1 diabetes.

There were mainly two groups of people who were monitored in this process. One group of people took insulin injection 3 times a day and also monitored their glucose readings at the rate of 4 times a day with the aim of achieving normal blood sugar level at a long term. The other group followed the conventional style of care that mainly concentrated on controlling the diabetes symptoms. People in the first group had an average A1c of 7 and those in the second were having a average reading of 9. The research team followed these patients for a period of almost 30 years with these groups staying on the team’s treatment regimes from the year 1983 to 1989. From these, the team saw interesting facts that people in group 1 had lesser risks and had almost 50% lesser risks of eye damage that those in group 2. These people also had lower risks of damaged kidney and also reported only fewer heart attack cases, chest pain or strokes compared to the people who underwent conventional care for glucose management.

Speaking on this Orchard added that if those people had stayed on intensive therapy, they could have also enjoyed healthier benefits. He also included that the results of these experiment clearly explains that reasonable control can help one lead an healthier life for a longer time without any complications.

Studies on intensive glucose monitoring on older people with type 2 diabetes has not produced expected results and some have even shown unexpected results of increased risks of chronic heart problems. Thus for younger people with type 1 diabetes intensive glucose control is the best way to cut risks of complications.