Insulin therapy for reducing cardiovascular risk in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Twenty-four percent of the adult American population have the metabolic syndrome. Although somewhat counterintuitive, carefully regulated treatment with insulin has been shown to reduce insulin resistance and may also retard the development of cardiovascular disease by preventing chronic hyperglycemia, a condition that synergistically contributes to many proatherogenic pathways, including glycoxidation, the polyol pathway, advanced glycation end products, interference with normal metabolic pathways, and stimulation of protein kinase C-beta and proinflammatory pathways. This article describes some of the physiologic changes that occur when hyperglycemia and insulin resistance develop in patients with type 2 diabetes and discusses therapies, including insulin, that normalize glucose and reduce insulin resistance, thereby potentially reducing cardiovascular risk.