More Diabetes, More Heart Disease: Study

Two-thirds of diabetics will die from heart attack or stroke, researchers warn
By Steven ReinbergHealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, March 26 (HealthDay News) -- As the number of Americans with type 2 diabetes has soared over the past 50 years, so, too, has heart disease linked to the blood sugar illness, researchers report.
"The proportion of heart disease due to diabetes has increased about 60 percent over time," said lead author Dr. Caroline S. Fox, a medical officer at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Framingham Heart Study. "Compared with other risk factors for heart disease, diabetes is becoming more of an issue," she said.
"I'm not surprised, but I am frightened," added Dr. Larry Deeb, president for medicine and science at the American Diabetes Association. "If you have diabetes and you have a heart attack, you don't do as well and the death rates are worse," he said.
The only solution is to prevent diabetes, Deeb said. In one major prevention trial, "we showed that with a half-hour of exercise a day and the loss of 10 to 15 pounds, you reduce the new diabetes cases by over 58 percent," he said.