Gaining control of your high blood pressure can reduce the risk of diabetic complications, according to encouraging data from the UKPDS.
If you have diabetes and high blood pressure and need a push to make the necessary lifestyle changes and to take all of your blood pressure drugs, consider the results of these two studies. In the United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS) of more than 1,000 people with type 2 diabetes, those who lowered their blood pressure with medication to an average of 144/80 mm Hg reduced their risk of stroke by 44% and their risk of kidney or eye disease by 37%, compared with less aggressive blood pressure treatment that reduced blood pressure to 154/82 mm Hg.
The UKPDS also showed that lowering blood pressure reduced the risk of heart attack and stroke more than did good blood glucose control. The Hypertension Optimal Therapy study, which involved close to 19,000 people with diabetes and hypertension, showed that lowering diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number) from 90 mm Hg to 80 mm Hg reduced the risk of heart disease, stroke, and other cardiovascular events by 50%.
Can Your Blood Pressure Medication Prevent Diabetes? Evidence is growing that certain blood pressure medications can help prevent type 2 diabetes in those at risk. For example, the Heart Outcomes Prevention Evaluation (HOPE) study, which evaluated the use of an ACE inhibitor in 5,700 people at risk for heart attack and stroke, found that the drug also lowered the chance of developing diabetes by 34%, compared with a placebo.
More recent research confirms this and has found the same to be true for angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs). A recent analysis of 12 studies involving more than 116,000 people showed that ACE inhibitor therapy lowered the risk of diabetes by 27%, and ARB therapy lowered the risk by 23%. In the 12 studies, the magnitude of risk reduction was as high as 87%.
