Heart Risks Escalate for Diabetics
Chance of dying after a heart attack nearly doubles

(HealthDay News) -- When it comes to the health complications associated with diabetes, most people know about circulation problems that can lead to amputations, eye troubles and kidney disease.

Far fewer seem to know that having diabetes puts a person at risk for acute coronary syndromes -- cardiac events that include chest pain called unstable angina and a heart attack.

But, 8.5 percent of diabetics who have severe heart attacks die within 30 days, compared with 5.4 percent of those who do not have diabetes. That translates to an 80 percent increased risk of death within a month after compensating for such factors as age (older people are more likely to have diabetes), the researchers said.

"Despite all the wonderful advances we have made in cardiology, people with diabetes don't enjoy the same magnitude of benefit," study author Dr. Elliott M. Antman, a senior investigator at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston , told HealthDay .

The researchers analyzed data on more than 62,000 people enrolled in 11 studies that evaluated therapies for acute coronary syndromes. Of the people who were studied, 17 percent had diabetes.

The increased risk was very evident for people who had unstable angina and less severe heart attacks -- a 2.1 percent death rate over 30 days for diabetics, compared with 1.1 percent for non-diabetics.

The study also found that a year after an acute coronary syndrome, the death rate for diabetics who had unstable angina and a mild heart attack was close to that of non-diabetics who suffered severe heart attacks -- 7.2 percent vs. 8.1 percent.

"We need aggressive strategies to manage the diabetic population," Antman said. "What we need to do is everything to halt the epidemic of diabetes and find through research what therapies are most helpful for diabetic patients. We've got to do better for those patients."

Almost 21 million Americans have diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association. But the association says that there are things people can do to keep from developing diabetes.

Before people are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, the kind often caused by being overweight, they almost always have "pre-diabetes," when blood glucose levels are higher than normal but not yet high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes.

About 54 million people in the United States have pre-diabetes.

Though they have a serious medical condition, people with pre-diabetes often can prevent the progression to full-blown diabetes by changing their diet and getting more exercise. They might even be able to return their blood glucose levels to the normal range.

Some medications can delay the development of diabetes, but for many, diet and exercise might work better. In one study, just 30 minutes a day of moderate physical activity, coupled with a 5 percent to 10 percent reduction in body weight, produced a 58 percent reduction in diabetes.

On the Web

To learn more about the connection between diabetes and cardiovascular disease, visit the U.S. National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse.

SOURCES: HealthDay News ; Elliott A. Antman, M.D., senior investigator, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston ; Aug. 15, 2007, Journal of the American Medical Association ; American Diabetes Association (www.diabetes.org)
Author: Anne Thompson
Publication Date: Aug. 31, 2008
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