14 DAY TRIAL // A study conducted on middle-aged diabetes patients has revealed that this particular subgroup has a life expectancy that is six years shorter than the average. Death occurred both due to diabetes and complications caused by the condition.
These included common forms of cancer, mental disorders, heart diseases, liver, digestive, kidney and lung problems, as well as infections. Diabetes is known to raise the risk for all these conditions.
Scientists at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom were in charge of this research, which united experts from all around the world in a large group. All of the researchers took a hard look at this disease, and at all the branching side-effects it entails.
It is for example known from past studies that suffering from diabetes boosts the risk of heart attacks and strokes by up to 100 percent. This is a worrying conclusion, considering that more than 285 million people around the world have been diagnosed with the condition.
In addition to posing a huge public health problem, this also exerts a huge strain on healthcare systems, especially in the developed world. This is where most diabetes patients are found, statistics indicate.
The study, funded by the UK Medical Research Council (MRC), surveyed some 820,900 people for more than 10 years. The research group was called the Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration.
The team was led by the head of the Cambridge University Department of Public Health and Primary Care, professor John Danesh. Scientists compensated for other factors that may have influenced the conclusions, such as for example age, gender, obesity and smoking.
One of the most important conclusions is that blood vessel diseases tended to account for nearly 60 percent of the increased risk of reduced life expectancy in diabetes patients.
“These findings broaden and intensify the need for efforts to prevent and understand diabetes,” explains Danesh, who was also the principal investigator on the research.
“In particular, the findings highlight the need for more detailed study of whether treatments against diabetes may also be relevant to lowering the risk of a range of diseases, including common cancers,” the expert goes on to say.
Interestingly, a significant number of diabetes patients harmed themselves during the study period, and the team says that additional investigations are required to understand why that happened.
More than 250 scientists in 25 countries were involved in the Collaboration. Details of the research were published in the March 2 issue of the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine.