You probably already know that sufferers of type 1 diabetes stand a much greater risk of contracting heart disease than non-diabetics. A new study shows that tight glucose control can pay off big time in reducing that risk.

An article in Forbes magazine reports that Dr. David Nathan, director of the Diabetes Center at Massachusetts General Hospital followed 1,441 volunteers with type 1 diabetes who were enrolled in a study between 1983 and 1989. The patients were 13 to 39 years old when they took part in the study, and the researchers wanted to see if they developed heart disease as they got older.

Some of the patients were told to intensively control their diabetes to keep their A1C levels as close as possible to the normal value of 6 percent or less. To do so, the patients had to closely monitor their blood sugar levels and give themselves at least three insulin injections a day or use an insulin pump.

Of the ones who continued to report their results, those who had intensively controlled their diabetes in the 1980s were less than half as likely as the others to have had heart attacks, strokes, angina, angioplasties or coronary bypass operations.

In general, people with type 1 diabetes have 10 times the risk of heart attack as people without diabetes.