Do you know what a transient ischemic attack, or TIA, is? Well, neither did I until five minutes ago. It's a mini-stroke. Now, that's a term you may be familiar with. Basically, they look just like a regular stroke but they cause no long-term problems. Trouble is, once you've experienced a mini-stroke, you're at much greater risk of having a regular, full-on stroke.

Here's news about mini-strokes that should be of interest to diabetics: a Dutch study concludes that impaired glucose tolerance, a precursor to diabetes, is linked to increased risk of stroke in non-diabetics who have already suffered a minor or mini-stroke. Specifically, study participants who had impaired glucose tolerance exhibited a scary eighty percent increased stroke risk. In other words, for those who have already suffered a TIA and who have impaired glucose tolerance, the risk of suffering a full stroke is higher than for those with regular glucose tolerance.

Results have been published in the rather unfortunately titled medical journal Stroke (June 2006)