Diabetic is a chronic health condition. It requires constant monitoring of the blood sugar level to stay fit and also keep the symptoms in control. But for adults who are suffering the Type 1 and Type 2 diseases, it is difficult. For them, managing their blood pressure level is equally important to lead a long and healthy life. There was a 21-year-old study presented at the American Heart Association’s Hypertension Scientific Sessions 2021. It said that a diabetic patient whose blood pressure decreases at night is twice as likely to die earlier as compared to those whose blood pressure remains constant or dipped at night.
Blood pressure usually dips or declines during sleep. If this does not take place at night, it is called “non-dipping”. If the blood pressure increases at night as compared to the day times, it is referred to as “reverse dipping”. These abnormal blood pressure patterns are associated with increased risks of cardiovascular complications and death. These generally occur with adults suffering from Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.
Martina Chiriaco, an investor in the department of clinical and experimental medicine at the University of Pisa in Pisa, Italy said some things about this. She said, “Our study shows that one in ten people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes could be a reverse dipper and that this condition likely more than doubles the risk of death from any cause over 21 years of time. This happens regardless of blood pressure control. It is important that health care professionals look for abnormal blood pressure dipping patterns in people with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.”
There was also a study conducted about this. The study said that the researchers also assessed the role of heart rate variability in their study group. This heart rate variability is a measure of the variation in times between each heartbeat. Chiriaco said, “Low heart rate variability is associated with worse health for people with heart failures and increases the risk of coronary artery disease in the general population. However, there is still a scarcity of long-term information on the association of reduced heart rate variability with mortality among people with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes.”
At the beginning of 1999, researchers studied 349 adults with diabetes in Pisa, Italy. They found that more than half of the participants had non-dipping blood pressure at night. They also found that 20 percent of them were reverse dippers. Among that 20 percent, nearly one-third of them had cardiac autonomic neuropathy versus 11 percent of those who had no dips. This nerve damage affects blood pressure and heart rate regulation. It also increases the risk of death and cardiovascular occurrences. Compared to dippers, reverse dippers had an average of 2.5 years of reduced survival. On the other hand, non-dippers had an average of 1.1 years of reduced survival.
