Study Says Blood Sugar Control Key to Type 1 Diabetes

A joint University of Pittsburgh/Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT) study indicates that early control of blood sugar levels dramatically reduces a Type 1 diabetes patient’s chances of heart, kidney, or nervous system complications. Co-author and Pitt professor of epidemiology Dr. Trevor Orchard says cases treated within six years of diagnosis were the healthiest, but patients at all stages responded to blood sugar regulation. He says the study reveals that fewer than one percent of those getting glucose control had vision or kidney problems.

Orchard says one of the main reasons they published the 30-year study results was to hopefully lower insurance premiums for Type 1 diabetes patients. “Patients with Type 1 diabetes are being penalized because of the poor experience that would have existed in previous studies,” says Orchard.