Reply To:
Name - Reply Comment
Last Updated : 2024-04-25 11:13:00
(Reuters Health) - Three in ten adults with type 2 diabetes who need to start taking insulin to lower their blood sugar don’t begin treatment when their doctors tell them to, a recent study suggests.
On average, these patients delay insulin for about two years, researchers report in
Diabetic Medicine.
“This matters to patients because insulin therapy is typically offered to patients with high blood sugar levels,” said senior study author Dr. Alexander Turchin of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston.
“If the patient does not start insulin therapy and does not initiate any other changes to bring their blood sugar levels down, their blood sugar can stay high for years, leading to diabetes complications such as blindness, kidney failure and heart attacks,” Turchin said by email.
Globally, about one in 10 adults have diabetes, according to the World Health Organization. Most have type 2 diabetes, which is associated with obesity and aging and occurs when the body can’t make or process enough of the hormone insulin.
Medications as well as lifestyle changes such as improved diet and exercise habits can help manage diabetes and keep symptoms in check. When diabetes isn’t well managed, however, dangerously high blood sugar can eventually lead to blindness, amputations, kidney failure, heart disease
and stroke.
While some previous research has found diabetics often fail to start insulin when it’s needed, it’s been unclear how much of this is due to doctors failing to prescribe the medication versus patients refusing to take it, Turchin said.
For the current study, researchers examined data from electronic physician notes at Brigham and Women’s Hospital from 2000 to 2014.
Of the 3,295 patients with diabetes included in the analysis, nearly one third declined a physician’s advice to begin insulin at the time the recommendation was made, researchers report in Diabetic Medicine. People who initially declined, but ultimately accepted the recommendation to start insulin, started the insulin therapy more than two years later, on average, during which time their blood glucose
levels climbed.
The study wasn’t a controlled experiment designed to prove whether or how delaying insulin impacts the course of diabetes or patients’ health.
Another limitation is the potential that results from one medical center might not reflect what happens for a broader population of patients, the
authors note.
It’s also possible that some patients declined insulin but this wasn’t noted in their medical records, leading the study to underestimate how often this occurs. Patients’ reasons for declining or delaying insulin were unknown.
Some patients might reject insulin because they’re afraid of needles or injections, or because they mistakenly think insulin causes diabetes complications, said Dr. Simon Heller, a diabetes researcher at the University of Sheffield in the UK who wasn’t involved in the study.
“They mistakenly think that insulin is the cause instead of understanding that complications have developed because blood sugar has been high for years,” Heller said by email.
Patients need to understand that insulin can help them quickly feel better and get their diabetes under control, said Dr. Vanessa Arguello, an endocrinologist at the David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles, who wasn’t involved in the study.
But there’s a lot people can do to minimize the odds that they will need insulin, Arguello said by email.
“The key to avoiding insulin begins with making lifestyle changes early in the disease process – this can be as early as when people are diagnosed with pre-diabetes,” Arguello said. “It is immensely rewarding to see the positive effects form a carbohydrate-controlled diet, exercise, and weight loss on type 2 diabetes control - plus collectively it’s the most inexpensive option for optimal glucose control.”
Kate Evans Friday, 06 October 2017 07:14 PM
We would like to invite you with your team on behalf of Organizing Committee to attend for 26th International Conference on Clinical Diabetes which is going to be held at Rome, Italy during December 14-15, 2017. It is an immense pleasure and privilege having you here with us to honor your hard-earned scientific discoveries, innovations and would like you to share, extend and impart your valuable thoughts to the global scientific community.http://diabetes.alliedacademies.com/
Add comment
Comments will be edited (grammar, spelling and slang) and authorized at the discretion of Daily Mirror online. The website also has the right not to publish selected comments.
Reply To:
Name - Reply Comment
US authorities are currently reviewing the manifest of every cargo aboard MV
On March 26, a couple arriving from Thailand was arrested with 88 live animal
According to villagers from Naula-Moragolla out of 105 families 80 can afford
Is the situation in Sri Lanka so grim that locals harbour hope that they coul