Diabetes Ups Death Risk Overall, Study Shows

(Source: Business Week, 04 March 2011)
People with diabetes are 80 percent more likely to die prematurely than those without the disease -- and it's not just diabetes that's killing them. Besides dying from vascular problems caused by diabetes, people with the blood sugar disease are also more likely to die prematurely from many other causes, including cancer, infections, falls, liver disease, mental disorders and even suicide, a new British analysis finds.

"This study confirms that diabetes is associated with higher mortality," said Dr. Camillo Ricordi, director of the Cell Transplant Center and Diabetes Research Institute at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. "There is a general attitude that diabetes is a treatable disease, that's it's no big deal, that you just take medicine and you have a normal life. Instead, you have a 2.5 increased rate of death." Read more