“I don’t mind dying. I just don’t want to be there when it happens.” –Woody Allen
MedPageToday has some details:
“Type-2 diabetics lived nearly 8 years longer when treated with an intensive, multifactorial approach that employed behavioral and pharmacological interventions.
The 160 patients with type-2 diabetes mellitus and microalbuminuria, now followed for 21 years, received either conventional or intensified therapy.
Thirty-eight intensive-therapy patients died during the follow-up period compared with 55 conventional-therapy patient deaths during the same time. This translated to a median survival period 7.9 years longer for the intensive-therapy cohort, as well as a median delay of 8.1 years to a first cardiovascular event, the investigators reported in the journal Diabetologia.
“The outcome of our study is very encouraging and emphasizes the need for early and intensified treatment of multiple modifiable risk factors for a poor prognosis of patients with type 2 diabetes,” said lead study author Peter Gaede, MD, of the University of Southern Denmark in Odense, in a statement.”
Source: Intensive Program Extends Lifespan in T2D Patients | Medpage Today
Study participants were northern Europeans (Danes) who had small amounts of protein (albumin) in their urine and were mostly in their 50s when this long-term study started.
Medical intervention included diet changes, drugs for diabetes/blood pressure/lipids, and exercise. Therapy for the intensive therapy group was “target-driven, with stepwise implementation of both behavioral and pharmacological treatment following a structured approach.”
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