Type 2 diabetes is a serious condition that can lead to life-threatening complications. But with the right management strategies, many people with type 2 diabetes can expect to live as long as those without the disease. Type 2 diabetes usually appears later in life, although the incidence in younger people is increasing. The disease is characterized by high blood glucose (sugar) levels or hyperglycemia, which is usually the result of a combination of unhealthy lifestyle habits, obesity, and genes. Left untreated, hyperglycemia can lead to serious, life-threatening complications.
Type 2 diabetes also puts you at risk for certain health conditions that may reduce your life expectancy. But there is good news: people with type 1 diabetes are known to live with this condition for more than 85 years. Recent studies on life expectancy show significant improvement in life expectancy rates for people with type 1 diabetes born later in the 20th century. Although there is no cure for type 2 diabetes, studies show that it is possible for some people to reverse it. Through dietary changes and weight loss, you may be able to achieve and maintain normal blood sugar levels without medication. After analyzing data from a major journal on diabetes, Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism, researchers found that the average person with type 1 diabetes was 42.8 years old and had a life expectancy of 32.6 years from now.
By comparison, people of the same age without diabetes were expected to live 40.2 years from now. For type 2 diabetes, the average patient was 65.4 years old and had a life expectancy of 18.6 years from now. In comparison, patients of the same age without diabetes were expected to live within 20.3 years. How quickly diabetes was diagnosed, the progress of diabetic complications, and whether one has other existing conditions will contribute to life expectancy, regardless of whether the person concerned has type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Patients with type 1 DM and type 2 DM are expected to have a half-life of 70.96 and 75.19 years at the end of the observed period. On average, having type 2 diabetes has been found to reduce life expectancy by up to 10 years. The stratification of the diabetic and non-diabetic population by type of diabetes and sex provides an interesting insight into the dynamics.
For the type 2 male population, life expectancy (LE) is higher than that of the non-diabetic male population; however, in the non-diabetic female population it is higher than the life expectancy of type 2 diabetic women. The same is observed when analyzing only male populations; however, for women the probability of survival begins to decrease between 60 and 64 years, equaling 65 years and subsequently falling well below the probability of survival in the non-diabetic female population. It is still logical that for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes female life expectancy is increasing; data clearly show that this contrasts with the stagnation of LE in the non-diabetic female population. The risk of stroke was more than three times higher in men and women aged 40 and younger diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, while the risk of atrial fibrillation was twice as high.
Previous studies have shown that younger people with type 2 diabetes have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease; however, those tests did not compare mortality risks from the time of diagnosis according to researchers. While if you develop type 2 diabetes at age 80 you don't lose any life expectancy. However, on average expected LE in patients with type 2 diabetes is higher compared to LE in the non-diabetic population; while average LE for type 1 patients is almost 4 years lower.
