The study, published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, also revealed that diabetics are twice as likely as non-diabetics to die after a heart attack.
"The increased risk was observed in people at all ages with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes who were receiving insulin or other drugs to reduce levels of sugar in the blood," said Dr. Tina Ken Schramm, lead author of the study and research fellow at the Gentofte Hospital. "When people with diabetes do have heart attacks, they are twice as likely to die as non-diabetics."
Schramm added, "In order to reduce the risk of heart attack, we should be saying, 'the sooner, the better' for primary prevention of cardiovascular diseases in diabetics."
Researchers said that regardless of sex and diabetes type, patients 30 years and older who require glucose-lowering treatment have a high risk of cardiovascular death and disease as compared to non-diabetics with a prior heart attack. The researchers did not study patients with diet-only treatment.
