Inclusion/exclusion criteria

Only patients with type 2 diabetes were studied but the population was not limited by gender, race, or health status. These factors, along with other lifestyle factors like medication and smoking status were adjusted in the statistical risk comparison of the control and experimental groups.

Type of variables

The independent variable was the presence of intensive glucose treatment. The dependent variable was the manifestation of cardiac (or other) related illnesses.

Type of statistical analysis

A hazard ratio was calculated to "represent the risk of an adverse clinical outcome or death among patients reporting severe hypoglycemia as compared with those not reporting severe hypoglycemia" (Zounga 2010).

Conclusion

Intensive glucose lowering was found to be associated with other negative health complaints, including cardiac-related...

But the association of negative health complaints with intensive glucose reduction indicates that it is best to treat type 2 diabetes early, ideally before it is fully manifest, with diet and exercise if at all possible. When using glucose reduction treatment, a conservative approach is warranted.
Reference

Zounga, Sophia, Anushka Patel, John Chalmers, Bastiaan E. de Galan, Qiang Li, M.Biostat.,

Laurent Billot, Mark Woodward, Toshiharu Ninomiya, Bruce Neal, Stephen

MacMahon,., Diederick E. Grobbee, Andre Pascal Kengne, Michel Marre, & Simon

Heller. (2010). Severe hypoglycemia and risks of vascular events and death.

New England Journal of Medicine, 363:1410-1418