CHICAGO (Reuters) – Aggressive drug treatment to lower blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol in diabetics does little to prevent heart disease and strokes, but it does help prevent diabetic eye disease, nerve and kidney disease, US researchers said this week. The five-year, US government-backed study, presented at the American Diabetes Association meeting on Tuesday, was stopped temporarily in February 2008 because there were 20 percent more deaths among diabetics with heart problems who got intensive treatment to lower their blood sugar compared to those who were treated more conservatively. The patients getting the tougher treatment were transferred into the gentler group and the trial continued. The latest long-term results show that using more drugs and adding a fibrate drug like Abbott Laboratories' TriCor to statin cholesterol drugs did little to prevent heart problems.

But it did help prevent diabetic retinopathy, the chief cause of vision loss in working-age Americans, the study of 10,251 older diabetes patients showed.

Because intensively lowering blood sugar in some patients art problems.

But it did help prevent diabetic retinopathy, the chief cause of vision loss in working-age Americans, the study of 10,251 older diabetes patients showed.

Because intensively lowering blood sugar in some patients can increase the risk of dying from heart problems or cause episodes of severely low blood sugar, doctors need to treat every patient individually, researchers said.