Gene May Raise Diabetics' Chances of Heart Disease

Some people with type 2 diabetes might be at higher risk for heart disease if they also carry a particular type of gene, new research reveals. The gene variant could raise diabetics' odds for heart woes by about a third compared to people without this DNA, according to a team from the Harvard School of Public Health and Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. The finding might lead to new ways to prevent or treat heart disease in this group of patients, the team added. People with type 2 diabetes are already up to four times more likely to develop heart disease than those without diabetes, and heart disease remains the leading cause of death among the more than 370 million people worldwide with type 2 diabetes, according to information in a Harvard news release. As reported in the Aug. 28 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, the Boston team analyzed data from more than 4,100 people with type 2 diabetes. About one-third of them also had heart disease. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_140119.html