Diabetic Patients Should Take Better Care of Themselves To Avoid Cardiovascular

Posted by williamjack on December 20th, 2019

As it is National Diabetes Month, it becomes important for all of us to educate ourselves and the people around us about this dreaded disease. This year, the aim is to look at the link between heart diseases and diabetes. If diabetic patients want to stay away from Holter EKG or Holter ECG, they’ll need to take care of themselves a lot more.

It has been noted that if you have diabetes, the chances of developing heart diseases increases by 48%. You could be at the risk of a heart stroke or a heart attack. Conditions such as high cholesterol and high blood pressure are risk factors that have been noted to contribute to heart strokes. And these exact aforementioned risk factors have been observed to develop in diabetic patients, making them more vulnerable to cardiovascular diseases. This makes it critical for diabetic patients to control their blood sugar levels along with cholesterol and blood pressure.

The connection between Diabetes and Heart Stroke

We all know that our body requires glucose to function. Insulin is a hormone secreted by the pancreas that is known for regulating the glycogen in the liver and accelerating the oxidation of sugars in the cell. Insulin carries the glucose from the food you consume to your cells. And when you have diabetes, your body begins to produce less insulin or loses its ability to use its insulin, or in some cases both.

This causes glucose (sugar) to accumulate in the blood and keep nutrients and oxygen from reaching different parts of your body. As high blood pressure has been identified as a major condition that contributes to heart stroke and people with diabetes are more likely to develop this particular condition, it makes sense for diabetic patients to take better care of themselves as they are at greater risk of getting heart strokes.

What Diabetic Patients Can Do

Take an A1C test to gauge your blood sugar levels over the past three months. Higher A1C number means that your blood sugar levels have been quite high in those previous three months. High blood sugar levels have been associated with harm to kidneys, eyes, blood vessels, and heart

Keep your blood pressure in check. High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, puts pressure on your heart

Cholesterol is of two types, HDL (good cholesterol) and LDL (bad cholesterol). Excess of bad cholesterol can clog your blood vessels whereas good cholesterol helps in removing LDL from blood vessels. Find out what your cholesterol number should be according to your age

Quit smoking as diabetes and smoking both are known to narrow your blood vessel, which forces your heart to work even harder 

By taking care of your diabetes, you will be, in a way, taking care of your heart. Follow what your doctor says religiously and you will be able to keep heart problems at bay.

Author’s Bio: The author is a blogger. This article is about diabetes and its link to heart diseases.