High Blood Pressure Often Proceeds to Type 2 Diabetes

Many patients with high blood pressure eventually develop type 2 diabetes, according to an expert writing in the Archives of Internal Medicine. And it doesn’t seem to make much practical difference as to how their blood pressure is treated. The effects of first-line antihypertensive drugs were examined in this respect - thiazide-type diuretics (water pills), calcium channel blockers, or ACE-inhibitors – as part of a large study to prevent heart attacks.

Average fasting blood sugar levels increased during the follow-up period in all 3 treatment groups. The good news is that there was no significant link between fasting glucose increases and subsequent coronary heart disease, stroke, cardiovascular disease, total mortality, or severe kidney disease.

Although the increase in fasting glucose levels was greatest in the patients given the thiazide diuretic (chlorthalidone), there was no difference among the treatments with regard to actual cardiovascular outcomes, as indicated above. This hasn’t stopped one physician from wondering whether such diuretics cause a ‘benign’ diabetes. Whatever - this doesn’t mean that, if you are on anti-hypertensive drugs, you can ignore a raised blood sugar. The consequences of full-blown type 2 diabetes are severe enough for such a change to be taken seriously.