Introduction
Diabetes increases your risk of developing heart disease. This condition, which is also known as cardiovascular disease (CVD) or coronary disease can cause strokes and heart attacks.
Circulation is also impacted by cardiovascular disease. Additionally, other diabetes consequences, such as issues with your eyes and feet, are made worse by poor circulation.
Because of this, it’s critical to look after your heart while you have diabetes. Consult your doctor to keep a check on your diabetes. Altius Hospitals have physicians for diabetes treatment and an elaborate diagnostic facility. Let us understand why having diabetes raises your risk of developing cardiac issues and how you can lower that risk.
Diabetes – a major risk for heart disease
Even slightly elevated blood sugar levels can cause damage to your blood vessels over time, which can result in serious cardiac problems.
Sugar can’t be adequately utilized by the body. This causes it to adhere to your red blood cells and accumulate in your blood. The blood veins delivering blood to and from your heart may get blocked and damaged as a result of this buildup, depriving the heart of oxygen and nutrients.
Therefore, maintaining your HbA1c level as close to your goal as feasible will help diabetes management and safeguard your blood vessels, ultimately your heart. Over time, even slightly elevated blood sugar levels can put you in greater danger.
Managing your diabetes and your heart
We’ve now seen the link between high blood sugar levels and your heart health. Blood sugars do not directly cause a heart attack. Elevated sugars damage blood vessels leading to a heart attack. Altius Hospitals, with the best cardiologists, is a multi-specialty hospital, to treat not only heart attacks but all heart ailments including critical care.
High cholesterol and high blood pressure can also become the culprits.
High cholesterol
The additional fat in your blood adheres to the walls of your blood vessels if your cholesterol level is too high. This fat becomes hard over time and is referred to as plaque. The blood vessels may become blocked by hard plaque, which will make the passageway smaller and less conducive to blood flow.
The most frequent reason for a heart attack is a condition known as atherosclerosis or arteriosclerosis.
High blood pressure
Not only does the blood strain to pass through the blood vessels, but as time passes, atherosclerosis causes the blood vessel walls to become less flexible and harder. This can either cause or exacerbate high blood pressure, often known as hypertension.
If you have diabetes, you should have your blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar levels examined at least once a year as a part of the routine health checkup to help avoid damage to your blood vessels. Altius Hospitals offers various health packages at affordable costs to help keep track of your health. In case of any abnormality, please consult a heart doctor. Should you require any assistance, a heart specialist is available at Altius Hospitals.
In addition to the above factors, the following factors can also raise your risk for heart disease:
- Smoking
- Obesity
- Stress
- Sedentary lifestyle – not getting enough physical activity
- Other heart ailments like an enlarged heart, valve issues, arrhythmias, etc
- Eating a diet high in saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, and sodium (salt)
- Drinking too much alcohol
Conclusion
Diabetes is known as the mother of all diseases. It causes damage to blood vessels, which results in the narrowing of its lumen leading to a heart attack. Hence, it is of utmost importance to regularly check and control blood sugar levels. Altius Hospitals offer a comprehensive health check-up package that can help in the early diagnosis of any health issues and correct the same so that one can live life to its fullest.
