Complications associated with diabetes can reduce life expectancy

Researchers estimate that approximately 529 million people worldwide are living with diabetes, and 90% to 95% have type 2 diabetes.

People with diabetes have a higher risk of developing serious complications, including heart disease, nerve damage, kidney disease, gum disease, depression, mood disorders, and eye problems.

If a person with diabetes has more than one of these problems, they are called multiple long-term conditions (MLTC).

Researchers at Imperial College London in the United Kingdom report that diabetes not only accelerates the onset of MLTC by 15-20 years, but these MLTCs mean that life expectancy much less in people with diabetes.

The study was recently published in the journal Natural medicine.

Multiple long-term conditions, up to age 50

For this study, researchers analyzed health data from more than 46 million adults in the UK aged 20 and over using the national bridges to health divide data set.

More than 3 million of the study participants had type 1, type 2, or other types of diabetes.

After analysis, the researchers found that about one-third of study participants with diabetes had at least three MLTCs by age 50. In contrast, those without the disease did not reach diabetes three MLTC to age 65-70.

The scientists also found that the average age of onset for at least two MLTCs for participants with diabetes was 66-67 years. Additionally, the younger a person was diagnosed with diabetes, the worse their MLTC level would be as they get older.

“Many chronic conditions have emerged as one of the most challenging threats to population health worldwide.“said Dr. Edward W. Gregg, Professor in the School of Public Health at the RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences in Ireland, Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Imperial College London and co-author -relevant to this study.

“It is largely considered a problem of aging, and although longer life spans are partly to blame, that does not tell the whole story. We have confirmed that this is a big challenge that happens even when people are young and middle aged“, he said.

High blood pressure, coronary heart disease and osteoarthritis, the most common conditions

When Gregg and his team studied specific MLTCs, across all ages and genders, the most common MLTCs were:

• high blood pressure
• coronary heart disease (CHD)
• osteoarthritis
• Depression
• asthma.

“We were not surprised that diabetes was associated with MLTC, but we were surprised by the diversity, the severity—that is, the prevalence of conditions 3, 4, or 5+— and relatively early“, Gregg said.

“High blood pressure and coronary heart disease were expected. However, there were no associations with asthma and osteoarthritis. An association with depression was expected, but it was surprising that it was associated with diabetes so often in childhood.”

4 years of life lost for each co-morbidity

The researchers also looked at how many years of life people with diabetes lost to MLTC.

The scientists found that participants with more MLTC lived fewer years and died earlier than participants who did not have MLTC.

For example, the researchers found that participants with diabetes and three MLTCs lived about 5 years less than the general population, while participants with diabetes who had at least five MLTCs 6 years earlier than those who did not have MLTCs.

Gregg and his team found that when young adults with diabetes had MLTC, more years of life were gained and lost.

For example, a person with diabetes and MLTC by age 40 lost about 4 years of life for each condition compared to those without MLTC.

“It could be a sign that when these conditions occur in young adults, they are particularly severe,” Gregg said. “But for the most part, chronic conditions tend to affect life expectancy over time, so we need to find ways to prevent people from developing these conditions early..”

“Diabetes itself is preventable, and preventing its onset can help reduce the accumulation of additional conditions,” he continued.. Morethe researcher said, “Diabetes is also easy to manage and with good control can reduce the development of MLTC. The next steps are to identify and develop and then test the effects of interventions that may reduce the development or exacerbation of MLTC..”

Why are so many conditions occurring together with diabetes?

After reviewing this study, Dr. Pouya Shafipour, a family physician and board certified in obesity at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, CA, told MNT that his findings did not surprise him.

“This is something we expect because diabetes and insulin resistance in the body starts long before someone is diagnosed with diabetes,” Shafipour explained. they will be in this condition of fatty liver, insulin resistance, and that’s when they start to damage the body, all the organs.”

“People with diabetes have an increased risk of atherosclerotic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease (CVA), stroke, retinopathy, neuropathy, kidney disease – many different conditions,” he said. “So it’s a whole body condition which it really is, so it wasn’t surprising at all.”

“From the side of the heart, we often think of heart diseases such as coronary heart disease, risk of heart attack and stroke, high blood pressure. All of these are related to diabetes, caused not only directly by diabetes affecting blood vessel function and organ function, but also in conjunction to diabetes due to underlying metabolic problems, especially obesity. So the results of the study are not surprising to me. In addition, it highlights the importance of long-term knowledge of diabetes and how it can affect your health in so many different ways.,” concluded Dr. Yu-Ming Ni.

Source: Medicalnewstoday.com