As terrible as diabetes can be on its own, it often leads to even worse conditions. Chief among these is heart disease. Today, the American Diabetes Association and American Heart Association joined together to stress the importance of heart health in a new study.

The statement, published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association's clinical research journal Diabetes Care, outlines joint guidelines from the organizations that encourage more aggressive prevention and treatment of the risk factors that lead to heart disease, the number one killer of people with diabetes.

Traditional lifestyle changes for people with diabetes have focused on weight loss. These new joint guidelines emphasize a need for major interventions that more significantly reduce CVD risk factors. It continues to cite the importance of achieving a healthy lifestyle, based on increased physical activity, medical nutrition therapy, and weight control. In addition, the statement calls for increased medical interventions, such as the use of statins, ACE inhibitors, and other drugs to manage lipids, blood pressure, and blood glucose levels in people with diabetes. The recommendations apply equally to people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

The rest of this interesting article can be found here. Let's hope this team effort pays off.