Lowering high blood pressure is an effective way to reduce a person’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes in the future, according to research funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and published today in The Lancet.
Doctors already prescribe blood pressure-lowering drugs to reduce a person’s chance of having a life-threatening heart attack or stroke, but whether these drugs can help to stave-off diabetes has been unknown.
Now, after much uncertainty, this study reveals that their protective effects are wider reaching than previously thought and may directly reduce a person’s risk of type 2 diabetes, a condition that 13.6 million people in the UK are now estimated to be at high risk of developing.