The Type 2 Diabetes Complication You Might Not Be Thinking Of
You may not know this, but heart disease is actually the number one complication of diabetes. Having type 2 diabetes doubles your risk for heart disease. Even having pre-diabetes, a diagnosis where your blood glucose levels are above normal but not quite high enough to be considered type 2, raises your risk. A recent study found that individuals with pre-diabetes had a 15 percent increased risk of cardiovascular disease and a higher risk of heart attack and stroke. Learn more by watching this video.
TRANSCRIPT
If you have prediabetes or type 2 diabetes, you are probably focused on managing your blood sugar, eating well and getting exercise. If so, keep going! Taking care of your diabetes is important.
You may not know this, but heart disease is actually the number one complication of diabetes. Having type 2 diabetes doubles your risk for heart disease.
Even having pre-diabetes, a diagnosis where your blood glucose levels are above normal but not quite high enough to be considered type 2, raises your risk. A recent study found that individuals with pre-diabetes had a 15 percent increased risk of cardiovascular disease and a higher risk of heart attack and stroke.
How are diabetes and heart disease linked? Over time, high blood glucose levels from diabetes can damage your blood vessels and wreak havoc on the nerves that control your heart, arteries and veins.
Diabetes can lower your good, HDL cholesterol levels while raising your bad, LDL cholesterol levels. It also raises the number of small LDL particles which embed in your artery walls easier leading to plaque build up and arteriosclerosis.
Diabetes can also increase your triglyceride levels — and too many triglycerides, another type of fat in your blood stream, can lead to heart disease.
Finally, people with diabetes tend to develop heart disease at a younger age than people without diabetes.
This may all sound overwhelming, but there is good news: Your heart disease risks go down if you keep your diabetes in check – and for those of you with prediabetes, the risks may go away if you avoid developing type 2 diabetes.
This is why it’s so important to keep your blood sugar under control. If you’re struggling to manage your diabetes, here are some things that can help:
- Keep up with your doctor and follow his or her advice. Your primary care doctor can be your partner on both type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
- Take your medications. If you have type 2 diabetes, chances are your doctor has put you on drugs to manage the disease and probably drugs to help prevent heart disease.
- Get exercise and eat healthy. The right diet and exercise effort will help both your blood glucose levels and heart health, and in some cases can reverse type 2 diabetes.
- Manage your stress. Elevated stress levels can wreck diabetes control and put extra strain on your heart.
Finally, lose weight, if you’re overweight or obese. Work with your doctor to get down to a weight that right for you. And remember, everything you do that’s good for diabetes is good for the rest of your body – including your heart.
Dr. Reisinger is MDVIP’s Associate Medical Director. He practiced for 35+ years as a board-certified internal medicine specialist with a heart for people, a focus on prevention and a desire to see primary care delivered the way it was intended. Serving as a member and subsequent chairman of MDVIP’s medical advisory board, he has helped to lead the clinical direction of the organization since 2008 and has been a passionate advocate for aggressive cardiovascular prevention in our network.
Previously, Dr. Reisinger was on the medical advisory board for Cleveland HeartLab and currently is a member of the BaleDoneen Academy, a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, a member of the American Society for Preventive Cardiology and an advisory board member of the American Academy for Oral Systemic Health.
Integral to his calling is his commitment to improving patient care, and he is resolute in the need to foster enhanced collaboration between the medical and dental communities. He has lectured nationally on cardiovascular disease prevention. Dr. Reisinger has embraced the mission of changing the outcome of CVD, the leading cause of death in the world… “because we can.”
View All Posts By A. Alan Reisinger, III, MD, FACP