Lower risk of heart attack and early death through this healthy lifestyle

Diabetics: Good levels of blood sugar, blood pressure and blood lipids reduces heart attack risk

Diabetes not only has serious effects on the metabolism, but can also cause numerous complications. For example, diabetics have an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases as well as premature death. A study has now shown how this risk can be reduced.

Consequences of diabetes

According to health experts, around seven million people in Germany live with diabetes. The disease can cause numerous complications. Frequently, the so-called diabetes causes over the course of time diseases of the cardiovascular system. In addition, the risk of early death in diabetics is higher compared to the overall population. However, when diabetic patients maintain blood pressure, blood lipids, blood sugar and kidney levels in the target area and refrain from smoking, their life expectancy is at almost the same level as in people without diabetes. In addition, the risk of heart attack or stroke is then similar. That's the result of a new study.

People with type 2 diabetes are at an increased risk of cardiovascular disease compared to the general population. One study has now shown that this risk can be significantly reduced by a healthy lifestyle. (Image: Kwangmoo / fotolia.com)

Increased risk of death

More and more people are suffering from diabetes. This has dramatic consequences: According to a study by an international research team, the life expectancy of the disease is reduced by nine years.

In Germany, about every fifth death is associated with diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes can also lead to many concomitant and sequelae and consequently increase the risk of death. For example, sufferers suffer cardiovascular diseases up to four times more frequently.

"Type 2 diabetes, however, does not necessarily mean that one dies of an early death and has to contend with a number of sequelae," emphasizes the President of the German Diabetes Association (DDG), Professor. med. Dirk Müller-Wieland, in a communication.

Keep values ​​in the target area

A cohort study from data from the Diabetes Registry in Sweden has now shown that diabetes patients who maintain blood pressure, blood lipids, blood sugar and kidney levels in the target area and abstain from smoking have a life expectancy that is nearly the same as in people without Diabetes is.

The risk of heart attack or stroke is then similar.

"This representative study from Sweden shows very clearly that one can live well and long with a chronic disease if one has it under control and meets its demands," says Müller-Wieland.

Here, doctors and patients should strictly follow the therapy goals. However, the framework conditions, such as a healthy living environment, should be created both personally and socially.

Focus on the five classic risk factors

The aim of the study published in the "New England Journal of Medicine" was to find a way to reduce or even eliminate the increased risk for people with type 2 diabetes for cardiovascular disease and early death.

For this purpose, the authors evaluated the data of 271,174 people with type 2 diabetes from the Swedish National Diabetes Registry for more than five years and compared them to a control group of 1,355,870 patients without diabetes.

In their study, they focused on the five classic risk factors that are known to cause cardiovascular risks and premature death in type 2 diabetes: high blood sugar, blood lipid and blood pressure, and poor kidney function and smoking.

The researchers came to the conclusion that people with type 2 diabetes, who kept all the values ​​in the target area, had nearly the same risk of death and cardiovascular risk as the control group.

Healthy lifestyle is crucial for the treatment

"With each additional one of the five examined values, which was within the target range, the risk of serious sequelae and premature death was reduced," explains Müller-Wieland.

"It is interesting that a permanently elevated blood sugar level was the highest risk factor for stroke and heart attack," commented Professor. med. Baptist Gallwitz, past president and press spokesman of the DDG.

"This study shows once again that a healthy lifestyle is crucial for the successful treatment of type 2 diabetes," said Professor. med. Monika Kellerer, vice-president of the DDG.

In order to keep the five values ​​consistently within the target range for patients, it is not only training and the willingness of patients to actively participate in therapeutic measures that are important. Investigations reveal that the appeal to the individual is insufficient.

"We need a rethinking of society that makes it easier for those affected to achieve their therapeutic goals through an altogether healthier environment," says Barbara Bitzer, Managing Director of the DDG.

"In addition, population-wide measures must absolutely prevent more and more people from developing type 2 diabetes," says the expert.

Health-promoting tax adjustments

The DDG considers health-promoting tax adjustments such as the "Healthy Value Added Tax" and the "Sugar Tax" as the most effective measures.

In some countries there is already a sugar tax. The majority of Germans, however, rejects them, as a survey showed.

Also, the union food-pleasure-restaurants (NGG) has spoken out against a fat and sugar tax.

The World Health Organization (WHO), on the other hand, has called for special taxes on sugary drinks to combat, among other things, obesity. According to experts, such soft drinks are often the cause of obesity.

The DDG also supports a ban on food advertising aimed at children. In addition, binding standards for boarding in day-care centers and schools as well as a daily obligatory lesson school spot / movement should be established. (Ad)