ROBERT SIEGEL, host: This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR
News. I'm Robert Siegel. MICHELE NORRIS, host: And I'm Michele
Norris. The government announced today it was revamping a big
diabetes study because some patients were dying of a treatment
designed to help them. NPR's Richard Knox reports the finding
challenges the belief that all patients should try to get their
blood sugar as close to those of people without diabetes.
RICHARD KNOX: Millions of patients with diabetes are struggling
to get their blood sugars as close to normal as possible. The
heart disease benefits are proven with Type 1 diabetes, which
begins early in life. But proof has been lacking for Type 2
diabetes, which is far more common. So the National Institutes
of Health launched a big study of aggressive blood sugar
control: 10,000 older diabetics at high risk of heart disease
got either standard diabetes care or intensive treatment to
lower their blood sugar. The results were the opposite of what
everybody expected. The group that got