Rationale For Intensive or Flexible Treatment
Long-term studies like the UK Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS) and the Diabetes control and complications trial (DCCT) showed that intensive insulinotherapy achieved blood glucose levels closer to non-diabetic people and that this was associated with reduced frequency and severity of blood vessel damage. Damage to large and small blood vessels (macro- and microvascular disease) is central to the development of complications of diabetes mellitus.
This evidence convinced most physicians who specialize in diabetes care that an important goal of treatment is to make the biochemical profile of the diabetic patient (blood lipids, HbA1c, etc.) as close to the values of non-diabetic people as possible. This is especially true for young patients with many decades of life ahead.
Read more about this topic: Intensive Insulinotherapy
Famous quotes containing the words intensive, flexible and/or treatment:
“We have to transpose ourselves into this impressionability of mind, into this sensitivity to tears and spiritual repentance, into this susceptibility, before we can judge how colorful and intensive life was then.”
—Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)
“Freedom is the essence of this faith. It has for its object simply to make men good and wise. Its institutions then should be as flexible as the wants of men. That form out of which the life and suitableness have departed should be as worthless in its eyes as the dead leaves that are falling around us.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“[17th-century] Puritans were the first modern parents. Like many of us, they looked on their treatment of children as a test of their own self-control. Their goal was not to simply to ensure the child’s duty to the family, but to help him or her make personal, individual commitments. They were the first authors to state that children must obey God rather than parents, in case of a clear conflict.”
—C. John Sommerville (20th century)