American College of Cardiology Stunned; Drugs Don't Help Diabetics' Hearts

Rather, Time.com describes three conclusive studies that reveal how lifestyle changes such as diet and exercise are your best bet for improving outcomes.
Doctors at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology in Atlanta on Sunday got some surprising news on their first day of sessions. Researchers presented three studies revealing that some of the most widely prescribed medications to reduce the risk of heart disease in Type 2 diabetes patients appeared not to provide much benefit at all.

 People with diabetes are twice as likely as nondiabetics to suffer a heart attack — most diabetes patients die of heart disease — and for years, physicians have used aggressive drug treatments to lower that risk. To that end, the goal has commonly been to lower blood sugar or control blood-sugar spikes after eating, lower triglycerides and reduce blood pressure in diabetes patients to levels closer to those of healthy, nondiabetic individuals. By using medication to treat these factors, which are linked to a higher risk of heart attack and stroke in other patients, doctors assumed they would also be reducing the risk in people with diabetes.

Now, in the aftermath of reports concluding that these targets do not cut the risk of heart disease in diabetes patients, and in some cases may even do harm, researchers are struggling to make sense of the seemingly counterintuitive data, and physicians are trying to figure out how to incorporate the findings into their practice.
As we know, one's choice of food determines how much blood sugar spikes after eating. So, why not choose foods that won't spike your blood sugar? Why not choose healthy foods such as meat, fish, eggs, or nuts that avoid the destructive sugar and insulin spikes? I wrote on this here and here.

Given that such aggressive drug treatment does not seem to afford significant benefits to diabetics on the whole, Saudek and his colleagues anticipate that going forward physicians and patients will increasingly reintroduce the importance of lifestyle changes, such as improving diet and getting more physically active, for slowing the progression of diabetes and reducing the risk of heart disease. These are therapies that are, after all, proven to work. "These discussions obviously should be going on the whole time, but these studies are one more reminder that medication therapy has its downsides," says Einhorn.

As you see, diet and exercise is proven to work. So what are you waiting for? Call me today for your free consultation and together we'll make a change.

Thanks, Karen De Coster  

 

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Comments

  • 3/20/2010 7:26 AM Bill Jolloff wrote:
    Very good information with your article Drugs Don't Help Diabetics Heart
    I'm a trainer and did not realize this but like you say it is very important to control blood sugar levels with our eating habits. Thanks
    Reply to this
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