Diabetes Lowers Life Expectancy
A study published in the June issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine found that diabetes decreases life expectancy of people over the age of 50 by an average of 7.5 years for men and 8.2 years for women, compared to those who do not have diabetes.
Researchers from the Netherlands, England and the United States analyzed data from the famed Framingham Heart Study, which recruited men and women between 1948 and 1951 and examined them twice a year for 46 years.
They found that diabetics tended to be men, were less likely to smoke, and were more likely to have family members with the disease than people without diabetes. Men with diabetes were 2.4 times as likely to develop heart disease and almost twice as likely to die from it. Women with diabetes had 2.5 times the risk of developing heart disease and 2.2 times the risk of dying from it.
Preventing diabetes through healthy diet and exercise is now seen as a major task of modern society in order to avoid premature death and promote quality of life in aging populations.
