The Mayo Clinic is warning people with diabetes that overtreatment can seriously endanger their health. The organization’s new research has found that many people—particularly with type 1 diabetes—are receiving too much glucose-lowering therapy. This overtreatment increases the risk of severe hypoglycemia.
A warning to diabetics
The scientists discovered that diabetics in the United States often received significantly more medication than they require. In fact, the problem is widespread enough that it resulted in more than 4,800 ER visits and 4,774 hospital admissions in just 2 years.
The research team also found that although less than 7% of 10.7 million nonpregnant adults with diabetes had hemoglobin A1C levels that weren’t within the recommended parameters, nearly 22% received intensive glucose-lowering therapy. If you’re doing the math, that’s 2.3 million diabetes who received overtreatment.
“Hypoglycemia, or low blood glucose, is one of the most common serious adverse effects of diabetes therapy, causing both immediate and long-term harm to [people] who experience it,” says Dr. Rozalina McCoy, who led the research. “Severe hypoglycemia, defined by the need for another person to help the patient treatment and terminate their hypoglycemic event, is associated with increased risk of death, cardiovascular disease, cognitive impairment, falls and fractures, and poor quality of life.”
Is overtreatment really that bad?
Many people will assume that it’s better to overtreat than undertreat when it comes to diabetes. But part of the concern is that healthcare professionals are often committed to controlling high blood sugar levels but aren’t as aware of the dangers of overtreatment.
“It is important not only to ensure that we do not undertreat our patients with diabetes,” says Dr. McCoy, “but also that we do not overtreat them because both undertreatment and overtreatment can harm our patients.”
The results of the research were published in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
