The five-year, U.S. government-backed study, presented at the American Diabetes Association meeting on Tuesday, was stopped temporarily in February 2008 because there were 20 percent more deaths among diabetics with heart problems who got intensive treatment to lower their blood sugar compared to those who were treated more conservatively.

The patients getting the tougher treatment were transferred into the gentler group and the trial continued.

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Jeffrey Brewer was on top of the world. For years he had put in 100-hour workweeks as cofounder of two early Internet juggernauts: local guide Citysearch and the online advertising pioneer GoTo.com (later renamed Overture). But by 2001, with more than enough money to live on for the rest of his life, the 32-year-old handed off control of Overture and set out on a yearlong trip to Australia with his wife and two kids. Upon their return to the States, though, they noticed something odd. Seven-year-old Sean was unquenchably thirsty and urinating far more often than usual. On September 19, 2002, they took him to the pediatrician. The doctor gave him a urine test and announced without hesitation, “Your son has type 1 diabetes.”

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