Free Republic

NEW ORLEANS — An international committee of experts has endorsed the use of the hemoglobin A1c assay to diagnose diabetes, at a level of 6.5% or above. The 21-member international committee, chaired by Dr. David M. Nathan, was appointed by the American Diabetes Association (ADA), the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), and the International Diabetes Federation (IDF). Their consensus report—presented in a symposium at the annual scientific sessions of the American Diabetes Association and published simultaneously online in Diabetes Care—has not yet been officially endorsed by the three organizations. “This is the first major departure from the...

The target hemoglobin A1c of less than 7% should remain the general goal for nonpregnant adults with diabetes, despite recent results from three large randomized trials showing that intensive glucose lowering did not reduce the risks of cardiovascular disease in people with longstanding type 2 diabetes. But glycemic targets that are either more or less stringent than that standard may be prudent for certain individuals with diabetes, according to a position statement issued jointly last month by the American College of Cardiology, American Diabetes Association, and American Heart Association and published online in the journals of each organization: the Journal...

Elevated blood sugar increases the risk of heart disease, not only in people with diabetes but also in those with high-normal readings not considered diabetic. Two new studies provide strong evidence that the increased risk is due to blood sugar itself, independent of other problems that often go along with it, like high blood pressure and cholesterol. Before the studies, diabetes was already known to be bad for the heart: it doubles the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, and 70 to 80 percent of people with diabetes die from heart attacks, strokes and artery disease. But researchers were not...