(NaturalNews) Aggressive use of drugs to radically lower blood sugar in hospitalized diabetics is no longer widely recommended as it was just a few years ago, with more and more researchers arguing that such treatments may actually end up killing more people than they save.
In 2001, a clinical trial concluded that critically ill diabetes patients undergoing surgery were 33 percent less likely to die in the hospital if their blood sugar levels were aggressively controlled. That single study led a number of health organizations to start recommending aggressive
blood sugar management for all hospitalized
diabetics.
That consensus radically changed this year, when two similar
studies on the issue came up with wildly different
results.
An Australian study called Advance seemed to back up the original 2001 study, finding that aggressively treated hospitalized diabetics had 20 percent lower
risk of developing kidney disease, and no increased risk of mortality. The North American Accord study, however, observed such an alarmingly elevated rate in death among participants that it had to be halted early.
The Accord study was conducted on Type 2 diabetics with a high risk of heart conditions.
In order to shed more light on the controversial topic, researchers from the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in White River Junction, Vt., reviewed the data from 29 prior studies on the issue, involving a total of 8,432
patients. They found that while the rates of death were fairly similar between those who received more conventional hospital
treatment and those who underwent aggressive
blood sugar control, those in the latter group had five times the risk of hypoglycemia.
Hypoglycemia, or low blood
sugar, is a common and potentially dangerous side effect of
diabetes treatment.
The researchers concluded that it would be irresponsible to continue recommending aggressive
diabetes treatment, considering the potential risks.
"Given the overall findings of this meta-analysis, it seems appropriate that the guidelines recommending tight glucose control in all critically ill patients should be re-evaluated until the results of larger, more definitive clinical trials are available," they wrote.
Sources for this story include:
www.reuters.com.
Have comments on this article? Post them here:
people have commented on this article.
Email this article to a friend
Share this article on: 
Now Available from 
