Young Type 2’s Are
30 Times More Likely to have a Stroke
Obesity in younger adults causes the usual
course of type 2 diabetes to be more aggressive
and makes them 14 times more likely to have
a heart attack and 30 times more likely to
have a stroke.
The increased risk was most pronounced in
women. It's no secret that diabetes promotes
the development of heart disease, but the
increased risk associated with diabetes was
much greater in younger adults than in older
people, researchers report in the November
issue of the journal Diabetes Care.
“The study showed that young adults,
especially women, with type 2 diabetes have
a much higher risk of heart disease at an
age when heart disease essentially does not
exist unless you have type 2 diabetes,"
says study author Dr. Teresa A. Hillier of
Kaiser Permanente Northwest/Hawaii in Portland,
Oregon .
Hillier noted that it is well known that both
obesity and type 2 diabetes are rapidly increasing
in both children and young adults. "I
believe that obesity may well be altering
the usual course of type 2 diabetes to make
it more aggressive in these younger adults,"
she said.
Hillier and a colleague, Kathryn L. Pedula,
based their findings on a study of nearly
8,000 people who were newly diagnosed with
type 2 diabetes. Participants were enrollees
in the Kaiser Permanente Northwest health
maintenance organization.
The researchers divided participants into
two groups based on whether they had been
diagnosed before or after turning 45, and
compared them with "control" groups
of people matched for age who did not have
diabetes.
Diabetes increased the risk of heart attack
and stroke in both age groups, but the increased
risk was much larger in younger people. People
who had been diagnosed before age 45 were
14 times more likely to have a heart attack
and 30 times more likely to have a stroke
than their non-diabetic peers.
In contrast, older people with diabetes were
four times more likely than their peers to
have a heart attack and three times more likely
to have a stroke. In younger adults, women
were most likely to have a heart attack, according
to the report. In addition, there were several
signs that diabetes was more severe in younger
adults.
People who developed diabetes before age 45
were more likely to need insulin, and they
were also more likely to develop a diabetes
complication called microalbuminuria a sign
of kidney impairment which also increases
the risk of heart disease.
One study, she pointed out, found that people
at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes
were able to cut their risk in half by losing
7 percent of their weight and walking 30 minutes
a day half an hour a week. Type 2, or non-insulin
dependent diabetes, is closely linked to obesity.
This type of diabetes usually develops in
adulthood, although as the nation's young
people become heavier and heavier, more and
more younger people are developing the disease.
In people with type 2 diabetes, blood sugar
levels rise as the body becomes resistant
to insulin, the hormone that processes sugar
in the body. While type 2 diabetes used to
be primarily a problem of middle and old age,
new cases of the illness among people 30 to
39 have risen 70 percent in the last decade.
