Author: McLaren Flint
Type 2 diabetes cases continue to rise, and heart disease is still the number one killer of both men and women. But what do they have to do with each other?
“Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disease,” said Dr. Hameem Changezi, an interventional cardiologist at McLaren Flint. “Amongst the alterations that occur within the body, there are cholesterol abnormalities that develop resulting in high "bad" cholesterol as well as triglycerides, which cause cholesterol deposition in arteries and blockages.”
People with type 2 diabetes are at more than two times greater risk of developing heart disease. Cardiovascular disease is responsible for two out of three deaths among people with type 2 diabetes. “Many factors can contribute to the increase in the prevalence of diabetes including smoking, poor diet, poor sleep, lack of physical activity even without weight gain, and stress,” said Dr. Sara Elsayed, family medicine physician and program director at McLaren Flint Family Medicine Residency Group Practice. “When you factor in diabetic genetics with poor lifestyle choices, it is much more likely a person will develop diabetes.”
Approximately 30 million Americans have diabetes, 8 million are not yet diagnosed, and 86 million show signs of prediabetes. People living with type 2 diabetes are more than twice as likely to develop cardiovascular disease and may live 7-8 years less.
“Generally, people who develop type 2 diabetes mellitus have concurrent high blood pressure,” said Dr. Changezi. “Both of these have harmful effects for the heart. Having bad cholesterol numbers leads to blockages, which compromises blood flow to the heart, and having high blood pressure adds more workload on the heart. Also, people who develop type 2 diabetes generally are less physically active which also reduces the "good" (HDL) cholesterol, further adding to the problem.”
According to the American Diabetes Association, having unmanaged diabetes substantially increases the likelihood of heart failure progressing or getting worse in people in the earliest stages of heart failure.
“To be able to prevent heart disease and heart failure in people with diabetes, risk factors must be aggressively treated and addressed regularly among all people with diabetes,” said Dr. Elsayed. “Controlling high blood pressure, treating high cholesterol, as well as addressing being obese or overweight, smoking cessation, and treating kidney disease are all very important. An aggressive approach to controlling blood sugars as soon as diabetes is diagnosed would help prevent heart complications down the line. The longer a patient lives with elevated blood sugars, the longer their exposure to ongoing heart damage remains.”
Treating diabetes is the first step to protecting your heart health. Educating yourself and building a healthier lifestyle can help reverse diabetes and improve your heart health at the same time.
“A cornerstone of all diabetes management is starting with diabetic self-management education in order to understand more about the illness and empower the patient to take their health into their own hands while learning how to manage their diabetes,” said Dr. Elsayed. “Nutritional therapy, management of weight, increasing physical activity, and avoidance of alcohol, processed foods, and artificial sweeteners are all very important steps to take to manage and ultimately reverse diabetes. There are also a variety of medications that your doctor can prescribe to help that are tailored to each patient’s unique needs.”
If you need diabetes education assistance, learn more here. If you need a primary care provider to help you learn more about your cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and diabetes risk, you can find McLaren physicians accepting new patients here.