In a joint statement released recently, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and American Heart Association (AHA) summarize the evidence supporting lifestyle and medical interventions that can help to prevent the development of heart disease in people with diabetes.

The statement, published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association's clinical research journal Diabetes Care, outlines joint guidelines from the organizations that encourage more aggressive prevention and therapy of the risk factors that lead to heart disease, the number one killer of people with diabetes.

Traditional changes in lifestyle for people with diabetes have focused on weight loss. These new joint guidelines emphasize a need for major interventions that more significantly reduce CVD risk factors. It continues to cite the importance of achieving a healthy lifestyle, based on increased physical activity, medical nutrition treatment, and weight control. In addition, the statement calls for increased medical interventions, such as the use of statins, ACE inhibitors, and other drugs to manage lipids, blood pressure, and blood glucose levels in people with diabetes. The recommendations apply equally to people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

These joint guidelines are part of an ongoing effort by the two organizations to coordinate efforts in the fight against cardiovascular disease, which affects two out of three people with diabetes.

"Diabetes is a deadly disease, but the truth is that most people who have it will actually die from heart disease, its most common and to often fatal complication," said John Buse, M.D., Ph.D., President-Elect, Medicine & Science, American Diabetes Association, Professor at the University of North Carolina and Chapel Hill, and co- author of the joint statement. "Thanks to decades of research, we now know quite a bit about how to lower the risk for heart disease - whether you have diabetes or not. But these risk factors often aren't treated aggressively enough, and the people who are living with diabetes aren't benefiting from this knowledge. We hope this joint statement will encourage physicians to put this knowledge to use in a more consistent manner".


Posted by: Sandra    Source

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