Link found between hypothyroidism and diabetes

New research has found a strong link between type 2 diabetes and an increased risk of hypothyroidism, and which recommends that people suffering from the condition should receive screening for thyroid problems.
The study compared 1,848 adult type 2 diabetes patients with 3,313 adults that didn’t have diabetes, finding that the occurrence of hypothyroidism for the diabetes patients was 5.7 per cent, while the control group had only a 1.8 per cent occurrence.
Although the link between thyroid disease and diabetes has been previously thought to be restricted to type 1 diabetes, the scientists showed a high association for type 2, leading them to support more routine testing for hypothyroidism for people with type 2 diabetes at an early stage of their diagnosis.
The patients involved in the research were given levothyroxine, although patients with thyroid neoplasia, panhypopituitarism, or have surgical complications of a multinodular goitre or a thyroid nodule were excluded. It was found that around 10 per cent to 31 per cent of patients with type 2 diabetes had thyroid dysfunction, and that those with subclinical hypothyroidism were the most common thyroid condition.
It was claimed that the association was consistent between type 2 diabetes and the hypothryroidism, as well as a greater risk of cardiovascular disease, reinforcing the need for more thyroid screening among patients with diabetes .