If you have diabetes, you are at much higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease, including heart attack or stroke. Doctors have long recognized this connection between the diabetes and heart disease.
But new research now indicates that the opposite may also be true – if you have heart disease, you may also be at much higher risk of developing diabetes.
Diabetes is the condition that results when excess sugar, also known as glucose, accumulates in the blood. This sugar can damage blood vessels throughout the body, and particularly in the heart and brain. This increases the risk of developing heart disease or having a stroke.
The American Diabetes Association reports that people with diabetes are at least twice as likely as people without the condition to develop heart disease or have a stroke. And two out of three people who have diabetes die as a result of cardiovascular disease.
But until recently, little study had been done to see if the reverse relationship was also true.
Christoph Saely, MD from the Academic Teaching Hospital in Feldkirch, Austria discussed the results of his study at a meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes. Saely explained that patients with more extensive heart disease appear to have a 33 percent higher risk of developing diabetes than patients without a coronary artery disease.
During the seven-and-a-half-year study, researchers tracked 506 patients who had heart disease, determined by coronary angiography, but did not have diabetes. Over 26 percent of those with severe heart disease went on to develop diabetes during the study period, compared with just over 16 percent of those with less severe heart disease.
The research team also observed that patients with a combination of heart disease and metabolic syndrome had an 88 percent higher risk of developing diabetes. Most notable of those were patients with high triglycerides who had a 29 percent higher risk.
The researchers did not suggest that heart disease caused diabetes, but noted that the presence of cardiovascular disease may be a valuable warning sign for potential risk.
Add a Comment5 Comments
Calcium is important, but milk is not its best source. www.zlotx.com Good sources of calcium are collards, bok choy, fortified soy milk, baked beans, and supplements which contain calcium and vitamin D.
May 4, 2013 - 11:17amThis Comment
Doctor have recognized the symptoms and connection of heart disease, most probably heart diseases are directly or indirectly related with diabetics, a person who is suffer from diabetic might be higher the risk of heart failure and others like kidney failure and heart strokes. In order to avoid heart disease we should be more conscious on our diabetic problems with certain rules and regulations such as regular visit the doctors, proper diet control, avoid sugar and cholesterol level and many more. These factors are more likely to reduce the risk of heart diseases.
March 15, 2013 - 8:12pmurgent care Ohio
Both cardiac disease and diabetes are chronic diseases that are the most common problem faced by people all over the world. During diabetes the patient faces other problems like obesity, eyesight problem and increased risk of cardiac diseases. So it is important to maintain weight to prevent these chronic diseases. Diet control and remaining active is very much necessary.
New years weight loss
December 31, 2012 - 12:53amDiabetes can be such a debilitating disease especially when uncontrolled. Type 1 obviously is about genetics but type 2 factors can be controlled by the individual for sure. Thank you for sharing.
October 24, 2012 - 9:26amMarielaina Perrone DDS
Henderson Dental Implants
When you go behind politics we see that type 2 diabetes has already been reversed . Dr Liu in Denmark revealed how to reverse diabetes without any medications.
October 24, 2012 - 8:57amNo one needs a drug to reverse type 2 diabetes. All of this information was taken from the Spirit Happy Diet people in Denmark.
Diabetes has been reversed in over 10,000 people by using a specialized diabetes diet. The diet also reversed body fat in people trying to lose weight. Scientists showed food chemicals is the cause of almost all diabetes. They also showed how to reverse your own diabetes without medications. See here http://spirithappy.org