Keeping Blood Sugar Super-Low Not Always Best

Doctors may have to rethink their recommendations for diabetes control in heart failure patients. Normally, people with diabetes are urged to keep their blood sugar as close to the normal range as possible. This is evaluated with a blood test called glycosylated hemoglobin or HbA1c. Scientists at UCLA tracked over 800 patients with severe heart failure. Those with levels of HbA1c between 8.3 and 8.9 percent were more likely to survive than those who managed to keep those levels down to the currently recommended level of about 7 percent. For patients who do not have heart failure, diabetes and elevated blood sugar levels increase their risk of developing this serious condition. But now physicians caring for people with both diabetes and heart failure will have to recalibrate how rigorously blood sugar is managed.
[ American Journal of Cardiology, online March 29, 2012]