Among people with diabetes, diabetic cardiovascular disease causes more death than any other diabetic complication. Much of society is not aware of this fact. Usually, diabetes is associated with kidney failure, blindness, amputations, and other organ failure. While these things reduce the quality of life for many diabetics, diabetic cardiovascular disease will kill more diabetics than anything else.

When blood glucose levels are not controlled and the diabetic suffers from chronic hyperglycemia (high blood sugar levels), the arteries lose their elasticity and become narrowed. High cholesterol can clog the arteries. All of is puts the diabetic at increased risk of diabetic cardiovascular disease.

Diabetic cardiovascular disease is the class of diseases that involve the heart, the vessels, or both. A cardiovascular disease is technically any disease that involves the cardiovascular system.

 

Diabetic Cardiovascular Disease Usually Involves Atherosclerosis

 

Atherosclerosis is a narrowing of the arteries that is caused by fatty substances building up on the interior walls of the vessels. Eventually, this fatty substance (cholesterol) will partially or completely block the blood flow. When the arteries that lead into the heart develop these blockages, the condition is referred to as Coronary artery disease or CAD.

CAD often leads to chest pain, high blood pressure, and heart attack. The heart attack is caused when blood flow (and oxygen flow) to the heart is blocked. The muscle of the heart is damage or experiences tissue death. This is the most severe of the consequences that diabetic cardiovascular disease can cause. Unfortunately, diabetics sometimes don’t experience the normal symptoms of a heart attack because damage done to the nerves doesn’t allow the diabetic to feel the same sensations of pain that a normal person would.

 

What is the Best Way to Avoid Diabetic Cardiovascular Disease?

 

The American Diabetes Association recommends that most adults with diabetes and a history of risk factors take a daily aspirin dose. Of course, the best prevention is properly managing your diabetes as soon as you become aware that you have it. This includes the familiar advice to eat healthy, exercise, keep control of your blood sugar, keeping a healthy weight, and quitting smoking if you are a smoker. And as simple as that advice sounds, it really is the best preventative for avoiding diabetic cardiovascular disease. Unfortunately, too many diabetics don’t follow even this simple advice that can be life-saving.

Symptoms of a heart attack include the following, although as stated above, pain may feel less severe to diabetics:

  • Chest pain – called angina
  • Pain in the arm, shoulder, neck or jaw
  • Tightness or a sensation of pressure in the chest
  • Shortness of breath
  • Excessive sweating
  • Nausea
  • Arrhythmia, which is an irregular heartbeat