Study links diabetes with reduced life expectancy

The researchers analysed the data collected from 820,900 people from different countries in a study coordinated by the University of Cambridge. The samples were monitored for nearly a decade.

Diabetes reduces life expectancy
The Daily mail said in its report that till now it was acknowledged that diabetes increased the risk of heart disease and stroke by two times.

The scientists from Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration found that type 2 diabetes also increased the risk of dying with cancer, mental disorders, and infections in the people suffering from type 2 diabetes.

One of the researchers, Naveed Sattar, from the University of Glasgow said, “The findings not only show the extensive range of complications linked to diabetes, but also the importance of raised sugar levels, as opposed to cholesterol and blood pressure to such complications.”

The researchers found that after taking into account other risk factors like obesity and smoking, age and sex, the people suffering from diabetes were more prone to get afflicted with diseases like mental disorders, infection, and cancers of liver, kidney, lung, and digestive system.

Study highlights the need for diabetes prevention
Diabetes affects nearly 285 million people across the world, and the study aims at highlighting the need for preventing diabetes, claim the study authors.

Lead researcher Dr. John Danesh said, “These findings broaden and intensify the need for efforts to prevent and understand diabetes. In particular, the findings highlight the need for more detailed study of whether treatments against diabetes may also be relevant to lowering the risk of a range of diseases, including common cancers.”

Nearly sixty percent of the reduced life expectancy in the diabetes patients originates from blood vessel diseases like heart attack and stroke, and only a small number of links are attributable to conditions like high blood pressure, obesity, and high lipid levels, which are commonly present in diabetes patients.

The authors of the study, however, stressed on the need for further investigations. The researchers also stressed on a probe into the link between diabetes and depression as a person suffering from diabetes has a higher chance of dying from intentional self harm.

The study has been published in the ‘New England Journal of Medicine’.