Diabetics have less illness and live longer if their condition is properly controlled, according to a major new study. One in 20 people have the disease, but diagnosis is often delayed until the onset of serious symptoms.
Prof Gerald Tomkin, chairman of the Diabetes Federation of Ireland, said the results were "very exciting" for the thousands of people with diabetes. It has shown, he said, that optimum medical care - controlling blood sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol - can reverse the risks of diabetes and prevent complications that occur when people with diabetes Type 2 get older.
These include blindness, kidney problems, and heart attacks. It also demonstrated, he said, the huge savings to the health service brought by improved care of diabetes early in the condition.
The study, the UK Prospective Diabetes Study, which was published in the British Medical Journal was the largest and longest in the history of diabetes. It involved more than 5,000 patients over a 14-year period.
A previous study in the US found people with diabetes die on average eight years earlier than the norm. The major cause was vascular disease and in particular coronary heart disease.
Prof Tomkin said Type 2 diabetes affects 5 per cent of the population, but for every Irish person diagnosed there is another who is not aware they have the disease. Commonly there are seven years between onset and diagnosis of this type of non-insulin dependent diabetes.
The symptoms include tiredness, thirst, passing a lot of urine, thrush, leg ulcers which do not heal, and changes in vision.
He said it was very important for people who have been diagnosed to ensure they are getting proper medical care, and attending diabetic clinics. "When a patient is diagnosed they should ask their doctor what their blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol levels are."