Diabetes and Heart Disease, Discover Your Risk and How to Successfully Reduce it
Diabetics face an increased risk of heart disease, anything from two to four times higher than the average figure. If you are diabetic, have had a heart attack and you do not get any treatment, there is a one in two chance you will have another heart attack in the next five years. Non diabetics face a one in four chance. To make matters still worse the mortality rate is much higher in diabetics. Non diabetics have an average 85% survival rate of a first heart attack and 75% survival rate for a second attack within five years. The survival rate figures for diabetics are 60% for the first and falling to only 20% for a second heart attack.
The situation is worse for Type 2 diabetics, for whom Heart disease is the most common cause of death over any other condition. This is due to a number of factors that can particularly affect some Type 2 diabetics, namely:
- Greater obesity rates
- Tendency of fatty deposits around the waist
- Raised blood pressure
- High glucose levels
- High cholesterol levels
- Stress
- Smoking
Treatments
Diet, exercise and good blood glucose control are the key. Follow the recommendations in the Diet section and aim to get as near as you can to your ideal body weight, although every pound you lose will reduce your risk of heart disease a little. Target the bad cholesterol in your diet, this being a major factor in heart disease. As mentioned in the Diet section, but worth restating here for its heart disease benefits - try changing some of the protein in your diet to come from Soy, which has been linked with a reduction in cholesterol. Make sure you are not eating too much salt, salt is added to may foods, always choose reduced salt foods and never add salt to your food.
Exercise and quit smoking! Exercise can bring a feeling of well being and help to reduce your stress levels, as well as giving you a better overall level of fitness. Smoking is linked to an increased rate of heart disease, diabetics who already have a raised risk level really should not be smoking at all. Quiting smoking is tough for some and of course there are various pills, patches and other techniques you can use to help you stop.
If you have been identified as being at risk, there are various drugs that have been shown to help diabetics, including drugs to reduce your bad cholesterol levels, blood pressure reducing drugs and asprin is well established as reducing the risk of heart attack. As with all treatments, you must seek the help of your Doctor and keep him or her informed of what you are doing.
Recommended Supplier
Diabetic Supplies from DiabetesStore.com
DiabetesStore.Com is a leading online retailer of all types of diabetes-related products at the lowest prices you'll find anywhere.
More Resources
[ www.diabetes.org ]
[ www.diabetes.ca ]
[ www.diabetesnet.com ]
[ www.diabetes.org.uk ]
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