--- title: Treating Diabetes: Why Aggressive Treatment May Backfire description: Overtreating type-2 diabetes can lead to severe side effects including hypoglycemia, fainting and seizures canonical: https://time.com/4357333/diabetes-treatment-side-effects-hypoglycemia/ author: Alice Park article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-06T15:00:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T22:23:16.652Z article:section: Health og:title: Doctors Warn That We May Be Over Treating Diabetes og:description: Overtreating type-2 diabetes can lead to severe side effects including hypoglycemia, fainting and seizures og:url: https://time.com/4357333/diabetes-treatment-side-effects-hypoglycemia/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltec22053f6058b512/69889658524fc0737cdf8434/gettyimages-98551012.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4937 og:image:height: 2777 og:image:alt: Man using a Glucose Reader. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Doctors Warn That We May Be Over Treating Diabetes twitter:description: Overtreating type-2 diabetes can lead to severe side effects including hypoglycemia, fainting and seizures twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltec22053f6058b512/69889658524fc0737cdf8434/gettyimages-98551012.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Overtreating Diabetes Can Have Serious Consequences, Experts Warn > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement.  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Jun 6, 2016 3:00 PM UTC  Man using a Glucose Reader. Man using a Glucose Reader. ballyscanlon—Getty Images  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Jun 6, 2016 3:00 PM UTC With type-2 diabetes, it’s important to keep blood sugar under control, but there’s also a danger in using too many drugs to bring levels to unhealthy lows, says Dr. Rozalina McCoy, from the Mayo Clinic. McCoy and her colleagues [report in _JAMA Internal Medicine_](http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?doi=10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.2275) about a study of more than 31,000 adults with [type 2 diabetes](http://time.com/65830/heart-attacks-strokes-related-to-type-2-diabetes-drop-dramatically/). They analyzed those who were treated aggressively to see how often they experienced dangerously low levels of blood sugar requiring hospitalization or other medical care. They considered aggressive treatment any case in which people were taking multiple medications to keep their blood sugar levels down. About 20% of the people in the study fit this category, and such aggressive treatment, says McCoy, might have actually done them more harm than good. For people who are older and have other health problems, aggressive treatment of their diabetes led to a complications including dizziness, fainting and in sever cases, seizures and coma. “Our goal in managing diabetes is to really get people’s blood sugar into a safe, normal range. Which means not too high—but it also means not be too low,” says McCoy. “And this applies to many people, not just the people in the study.” While the risk was highest for people who are older and those with other health problems, McCoy says there is a lesson for everyone with diabetes, and for the doctors who treat them. “In an effort to reduce undertreatment, and to make sure patients are tested and receive the appropriate treatment medications, we don’t have a counterbalance to ensure that patients are not over treated.” She points to several factors in the aggressive over treatment, the most important of which are guidelines and recommendations that focus on reducing blood sugar _without_ a companion emphasis on warning against what levels can be too low. The long-term health dangers to high blood sugar include damage to the kidneys, eyes and risk of amputation. The harms of low blood sugar are more immediate, and should also be part of any doctor’s treatment of people with diabetes, McCoy says. She hopes the results of the study serve as a lesson for all doctors, not just those who treat people with diabetes. “The same principle applies to many chronic diseases,” she says. “We may hurt patients in our desire to help them if we do too much.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4357333/diabetes-treatment-side-effects-hypoglycemia/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4357333/diabetes-treatment-side-effects-hypoglycemia/"},"headline":"Overtreating Diabetes Can Have Serious Consequences, Experts Warn","datePublished":"2016-06-06T15:00:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T22:23:16.652Z","description":"Too-low blood sugar can cause hypoglycemia, fainting, comas and seizures","url":"https://time.com/4357333/diabetes-treatment-side-effects-hypoglycemia/","keywords":["health","diabetes"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltec22053f6058b512/69889658524fc0737cdf8434/gettyimages-98551012.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alice Park","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/alice-park/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltec22053f6058b512/69889658524fc0737cdf8434/gettyimages-98551012.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Man using a Glucose Reader.","caption":"Man using a Glucose Reader.","creditText":"ballyscanlon—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/health/","name":"health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4357333/diabetes-treatment-side-effects-hypoglycemia/","name":"Overtreating Diabetes Can Have Serious Consequences, Experts Warn"}}]}] ```