Young people with diabetes at ‘high risk’ of sudden death from heart problems, major study finds

A large study shows that young people with diabetes are at greater risk of sudden death.

Danish researchers found that diabetics are significantly more likely to suffer sudden cardiac death than healthy people of the same age.

Surprisingly, this risk was greatest in people between the ages of 30 and 40 with type 1 diabetes, the genetic form of the disease.

This risk group is 20 times more likely to die from a heart problem.

People aged 30 and older with type 2 diabetes – which is linked to being overweight or inactive – were almost six times more likely.

People with diabetes often use blood glucose meters, like the one pictured, to determine how much sugar is currently circulating in their bloodstream. This helps them decide what to eat and when to use insulin to best treat their disease.

Experts say the findings show it is vital that young diabetes patients are monitored for heart problems.

“These are very interesting results,” said Professor Elijah Behr, a cardiologist at St George’s, University of London.

‘It has long been known that diabetes increases the risk of heart disease, but the strength of the effect may not have been understood.

‘It doesn’t necessarily change the way we treat people at the moment, but it does show that patients with diabetes need to be monitored much more closely, particularly because they are at greater risk of other common comorbidities.’

According to the British Heart Foundation, every week in the UK, 12 people under the age of 35 die from sudden cardiac arrest, an unexplained cardiac arrest.

Around 4.4 million people in the UK have type 2 diabetes. Another 400,000 have type 1 diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes can be managed with a healthy diet and regular exercise. Medications may be prescribed if these measures do not work. However, type 1 patients require regular doses of insulin, a hormone that lowers blood sugar levels.

If left untreated, diabetes in either form can lead to serious complications such as blindness and heart disease. But until now, it has been unclear how early these complications become a serious risk.

“If you have someone with diabetes, you need to monitor them closely for heart problems,” said Professor Jacob Tfelt-Hansen, a diabetes expert at the University of Copenhagen, who presented the study findings last month at the European Society of Cardiology Congress.

‘We know that up to 50 percent of young people who have a sudden cardiac arrest have symptoms of syncope [fainting] or angina pectoris [chest pain]For example.’