Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
A new study sheds light on the clinical course of type 2 diabetes in patients in their 60s, 70s, or 80s. Hypoglycemia has emerged as a common nonfatal complication, following cardiovascular disease. And perhaps not surprisingly, mortality increased steeply with advancing age.
These findings, from the Diabetes and Aging Study, were published online December 9 in JAMA Internal Medicine.
This is the first description of the course of diabetes in older people based on contemporary data, from the 2000s as opposed to the1990s, Elbert S. Huang, MD, from the University of Chicago, Illinois, told Medscape Medical News. Strikingly, it shows that "hypoglycemia ? a side effect of diabetes treatments ? has now emerged as the number 2 or number 3 major complication in older people," he said. In particular, patients in their 80s who have had diabetes for over 10 years are "a group to be very careful with when treating their diabetes," since they are at highest risk of hypoglycemia, he added.
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/817703
(free registration required)
These findings, from the Diabetes and Aging Study, were published online December 9 in JAMA Internal Medicine.
This is the first description of the course of diabetes in older people based on contemporary data, from the 2000s as opposed to the1990s, Elbert S. Huang, MD, from the University of Chicago, Illinois, told Medscape Medical News. Strikingly, it shows that "hypoglycemia ? a side effect of diabetes treatments ? has now emerged as the number 2 or number 3 major complication in older people," he said. In particular, patients in their 80s who have had diabetes for over 10 years are "a group to be very careful with when treating their diabetes," since they are at highest risk of hypoglycemia, he added.
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/817703
(free registration required)