People with diabetes who want to lower their risk of heart attack and stroke should focus on controlling their blood pressure and ''bad'' cholesterol, according to a new study of more than 26,000 patients.
Controlling both these risk factors, the researchers found, made patients less likely to be hospitalized for heart attacks or strokes than those who only controlled blood sugar during the six-year follow-up.
"It's not that blood glucose is not important. It's that low-density cholesterol and blood pressure control are more important if cardiovascular disease is what you are trying to prevent," says Gregory A. Nichols, PhD, a senior investigator at Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research.
The study is published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
content aggregation:healthprior21
source:WebMD

