Hypertension increases diabetes risk

Boston -- Women with high blood pressure are three times more likely to develop diabetes than women with low blood pressure, a U.S. study found.

Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston said the effect was independent of body mass index and other conditions already known to predispose people to cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

Lead author Dr. David Conen tracked more than 38,000 female health professionals for 10 years beginning in 1993. All the women were free of diabetes and cardiovascular disease at the beginning of the study.

The study, published in the European Heart Journal, found that after adjusting for various factors such as age, ethnicity, smoking, alcohol intake, body mass index, exercise, family history of diabetes etc, women with hypertension had a three-fold risk of developing diabetes compared with women with optimal blood pressure.

"Finding an independent association between blood pressure and new-onset diabetes is important, because it suggests that women with increasing blood pressure levels should have their blood glucose levels monitored," Conen said in a statement.

"Individuals at high risk for cardiovascular disease may benefit from early intervention."

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