HHS HealthBeat (June 12, 2012)

Diabetes and stroke

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

A study finds that the risk of stroke among people with diabetes rises depending on how long they had the disease. At Columbia University medical Center in New York City, Mitchell Elkind examined data on almost 3,300 people, to see who developed diabetes and who had strokes.

Elkind says that, compared with people who never had diabetes, stroke risk was 70 percent higher in people who had diabetes less than five years, but three times as high for people who had diabetes 10 years or more.

“The longer people have diabetes, the higher the risk. But it is important to remember that even those who had diabetes for a few years still had an increase in risk.”

The study in the journal Stroke was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at healthfinder.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: June 11, 2012