Aggressive measures to treat cholesterol, hypertension in diabetes not beneficial.

Moral of the story: The guidelines are correct.  Meet the recommended levels and you are good to go (if you have diabetes).

Source: AMA Morning Rounds 3/17/2010

Aggressive measures to treat cholesterol, hypertension in diabetes not beneficial.

The Los Angeles Times (3/15, Maugh) reports that for diabetics, "two new reports from a major nationwide trial called ACCORD released Sunday show that lowering either blood pressure or cholesterol levels below current guidelines do not provide additional benefit and, in fact, increase the risk of side effects." And, "a third arm of the study, released two years ago, shows that lowering blood sugar levels excessively actually increases the risk of heart disease." Despite being disappointing, "the findings 'reduce the cost and potential side effects of drug therapy' and mean that patients will not have to work as hard at reducing blood sugars, lipids, and blood pressure, said Dr. Denise Simons-Morton of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, which funded the trial."