Diabetes is a major health concern for millions. It is a disease that comes with a whole host of debilitating and often life-threatening complications. Inspite of the growing occurrence of diabetes diagnoses, an interesting trend has been revealed thanks to a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Research conducted by the CDC shows significant declines in many of the most severe complications that arise from diabetes. Heart disease, stroke, amputations and kidney failure rates have all dropped over the last 20 years at an impressive rate.

The study reveals that even with the increase in number of patients diagnosed with diabetes, heart attack rates have gone down 68 percent between 1990 and 2010. Even with growing numbers of people with diabetes, the number of hospitalizations was able to reported to have declined from over 140,000 to around 136,000, or 45.5 per 10,000 patients with diabetes, down from 141 per 10,000 in 1990.

Stroke rates present a more modest, but still noteworthy improvement, dropping down to 53 per 10,000 patients, which is over half the rate from 20 years ago. Amputations share a comparable decline in rates and deaths from elevated blood sugar have decreased 64 percent.

Less improvement could be found in kidney failure rates, which went down 28 percent with the exception of populations 65 or older. Researchers suggest that this could be the result of individuals with diabetes living longer and experiencing kidney complications later in life. More research would be needed to test the factors behind kidney failure rates and why their occurrence has shifted rather than declined alongside other complications.

The main reason researchers think there has been such high drops in diabetes related health complications involves the increasing access to better treatment over the last two decades. Informed by important research, treatment plans developed to incorporate controlling blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol levels. Insurance companies expanded their policies to include coverage of medical supplies needed to monitor blood sugar levels and other treatments for diabetes management. Thus, treatment was more comprehensive and more readily available, allowing individuals to be diagnosed and treated much earlier in the development of the disease.