That Health Rules

Almost always a patient that suffers from diabetes is obese, have high triglycerides and low HDL and develops high blood pressure and high cholesterol… the combination of which is called the Metabolic syndrome.  If any of these conditions are not addressed then ones risk to suffer from chronic complication like heart disease is increased.  Whether the sum of the components or the combination of two parts or only one component is present makes a patient more at risk to die is not well documented.

The new study published in Annals of Internal Medicine May 2008 now shows that having two parts increases the risk to die more than having the combination for the components of the syndrome itself….

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1. After multivariable adjustment, compared with persons without MetS, those with MetS had a 22% higher mortality .
2. Higher risk with MetS was confined to persons having elevated fasting glucose level  or treated diabetes mellitus or hypertension as one of the criteria;
3. Persons having MetS without High Fasting Glucose or MetS without hypertension did not have higher risk.
4. Evaluating MetS criteria individually, we found that only hypertension and EFG predicted higher mortality;
5. Persons having both hypertension and Elevated Fasting Glucose had 82% higher mortality .
6. Substantially higher proportions of deaths were attributable to EFG and hypertension (population attributable risk fraction [PAR%], 22.2%) than to MetS (PAR%, 6.3%).

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There you go my friends…just having diabetes or hypertension makes one at higher risk to die from heart disease.  More so if high blood sugar is joined by high blood pressure then the risk to die is 82%!!!!

The above study therefore tells us that making a diagnosis of metabolic syndrome does not entail more risk to die than having just diabetes of hypertension alone.  Such that… it’s utility as a diagnosis and as a risk factor for cardiovascular mortality is put in question. 

So friends…please dont take these two conditions lightly!!! As an endocrinologist, I take these conditions seriously and that all patients with Diabetes are screened for blood pressure and cholesterol abnormalities and vice versa! 

To summarize the study:

Having High Sugar especially if with High Blood Pressure Can Be DEADLY! 

This entry was posted on May 23, 2008 at 10:41 am and is filed under General Health Tips, Medical News Bits, Personal Thoughts, The Diabetes Facts, Tips To Protect Your Heart.