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In the last few decades, we’ve learned a lot about what causes diabetes and the complications associated with diabetes. For example, we’re very confident that if we reduce the blood sugar and keep it as normal as possible, we’ll reduce eye, kidney, and nerve disease associated with diabetes. Unfortunately, in order to reduce heart attacks and strokes that are associated with diabetes, we have to do something other than just controlling the blood sugar. We have to aggressively target cardiovascular risk factors. Some of the research that’s going on right now is to find out if any particular strategy of blood sugar lowering is better than the others at reducing heart attacks and strokes. A couple of diabetes drugs have been approved for reducing heart disease – even in non-diabetes. That’s a big deal in diabetes research right now – is what particular strategy do we need to do to reduce the complications? It’s pretty clear that it’s not just lowering the blood sugar – how we’re lowering the blood sugar might make a difference. We’re learning more about that every year.
