Reducing HbA1c by 1%:
The symptoms of diabetes in its early stages are not obvious. Because of this, half of the patients feel normal, many of whom delay diagnosis and neglect treatment. In the middle and late stages (with a disease duration of 5 to 10 years or more), the condition affects other organs in the body. Long-term chronic hyperglycemia causes eye, kidney, nerve, heart, and vascular damage, leading to dysfunction or failure, and various complications. This has a significant impact on the body, causing patients to suffer from pain. However, by this time, the opportunity for treatment has been lost, and it is too late to regret.
The Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT) and the UK Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS) clinical trials enrolled 1,441 patients with type 1 diabetes and 5,102 patients with type 2 diabetes, comparing the effects of intensive glucose control and general glucose control. After a 10-year follow-up, the results showed that intensive glucose control can significantly reduce the risk of microvascular complications in patients with early-stage diabetes (a 33% reduction in the incidence rate in the intensive group).
Strict glucose and metabolic control can reduce and delay the occurrence and progression of chronic complications of diabetes, thus emphasizing that diabetes treatment must reach treatment goals to be considered effective. Both physicians and patients must understand that only achieving treatment targets can potentially prevent diabetes complications.
The benefits of reducing sugarated hemoglobin (HbA1c) by 1% are:
- 43% reduction in the incidence of amputation or life-threatening lower extremity vascular diseases;
- 37% reduction in the incidence of diabetic microvascular complications;
- 21% reduction in diabetes-related deaths;
- 14% reduction in myocardial infarctions occurring in diabetes patients;
- 12% reduction in strokes occurring in diabetes patients.
