Linking Diabetes and Heart Disease
There have been multiple studies linking diseases to heart disease. One link that is commonly overlooked is that relating Heart Disease to Diabetes. Diabetes is one of the largest epidemics facing the nation and in a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed rates of Type 2 diabetes almost doubling nationwide in the past decade. Diabetes is the fifth leading killer in the United States. A devastating two out of three people with type I or type II diabetes will die from a heart attack or stroke – the combined leading causes of death among diabetics. CNN.com recently published an article, “Diabetes and Heart Disease: A Fatal Link” which discusses the link between these two epidemics in great detail.
Diabetes is a disease is broken down into two types. Type one, juvenile diabetes, is characterized by a pancreas that does not produce insulin. Juvenile diabetes is usually diagnosed by the age of 25 and is treated by taking insulin injections. The causes of juvenile diabetes are not exactly known; however, many researchers are agreeing that most cases are caused as a result of heredity or genetic mutations. Either way juvenile diabetes is unpreventable. Type two, adult on set diabetes, is characterized by the body being unable to effectively distribute the produced insulin to the body. Adult on set diabetes can usually be treated by the oral consumption of pills, but if they prove to be ineffective, patients turn to insulin injections. Adult on set diabetes is usually begins being diagnosed at the age of 40 as a result of weight gain. Diabetes, regardless of the type, is known as the silent killer because there is no visible damage to the body. Diabetes deteriorates the body over a length of time and by the time the effects are visible it is too late.
Diabetics have blood that is saturated with glucose, thus tremendously impacting a patient’s circulation. Specifically, the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen to all the body cells, hemoglobin, is affected. When diabetes is uncontrolled, too much sugar, or glucose, is in the blood. The extra glucose enters the red blood cells and sticks to the hemoglobin; the more excess glucose, the more sugar that sticks to the hemoglobin. This makes it more difficult for the blood to be pumped through the body due to its increased sugar saturation. This causes the heart to pump faster with out delivering oxygen at the rate which it would be able to without the excess glucose. This ultimately weakens the heart making it more susceptible to failure.
Once a patient is diagnosed with diabetes, physicians often tell patients to remember their ABC’s in order to be proactive against heart disease. The ABC’s represent the three measurements that diabetics are concerned with; they stand for A1C, blood pressure and cholesterol respectively. Keeping the levels from these three tests within recommended ranges is key to reducing the risk for diabetes-related complications such as heart attacks. Diabetes is a serious and devastating disease. It is crucial for patients to control their ABC’s and be in constant consultation with their physicians in order to best manage the disease and its complications.
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