Research

Hormonal

Intensive glycemic control (targeting HbA1c ≤ 6.5%) does not significantly reduce cardiovascular events or all-cause mortality in patients with Type 2 Diabetes compared to standard control, and may increase mortality risk.

If you have Type 2 Diabetes, aiming for extremely low blood sugar (like an A1c under 6.5%) may not protect your heart and could actually increase your risk of death or severe low-blood-sugar episodes. Focus on standard control targets (around 7%) and managing blood pressure and cholesterol instead, unless your doctor advises otherwise based on your specific health history.

StrongRefutesHIGH confidence
Current studies fail to show that intensive glycemic control (HbA1c ≤ 6.5%) has a significant CV benefit compared to standard glycemic control targets (HbA1c of 7%-7.9%) in patients with T2DM... Furthermore, very tight glycemic control (HbA1c ≤ 6%), as seen in the ACCORD trial, may place patients at additional risk of hypoglycemia, weight gain and all cause mortality.
Benjamin M Leon · World Journal of Diabetes · 2015

Why this rating

Based on multiple large-scale, multi-center randomized control trials (UKPDS, VADT, ADVANCE, ACCORD, DCCT/EDIC).

Source

Diabetes and cardiovascular disease: Epidemiology, biological mechanisms, treatment recommendations and future research

Benjamin M Leon · World Journal of Diabetes · 2015

DOI 10.4239/wjd.v6.i13.1246

narrative_reviewCited 1,237×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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