Study: Type 1 Diabetes Cuts Lifespan

People with type 1 diabetes lose an average of 12 years of life because of their disease. But tight control of blood-sugar levels may reduce that loss. Those are the conclusions of 2 new studies. People with type 1 diabetes have to inject insulin because their bodies don’t make it. The first study looked at nearly 25,000 adults with type 1 diabetes. Men died 11 years earlier and women 13 years earlier than people in a comparison group without the disease. Heart disease accounted for the lost years in 36% of men and 31% of women. About 29% of men and 22% of women under age 50 died of problems directly related to extremely high or low blood sugar. The second study randomly divided 1,400 type 1 diabetics into 2 groups. One group checked blood sugar very often. They adjusted medicines quickly to keep sugar levels close to normal. The other group managed blood sugar less intensely.