Keys To A Healthy Heart
Reviewed by Staff of Diabetes Digest

Good cardiovascular health means having a healthy heart and healthy blood vessels. And while living a “heart healthy” lifestyle should be a priority for everyone, people with diabetes need to pay special attention because they are:

• Two to four times more likely to develop heart disease
• Five times more likely to have a stroke

Fortunately, many of the same things you do to maintain good blood sugar control will also improve the strength of your cardiovascular system and help lessen your chances of developing heart disease. Some of the many examples include:

• Keeping your blood sugar levels within your target range will also help keep your blood vessels healthy and protect you from atherosclerosis - sometimes called “hardening of the arteries” - a contributing factor in cardiovascular disease.
• Maintaining a healthy lifestyle by watching what you eat can help prevent high levels of lipids, like bad cholesterol (LDL) and triglycerides, from building up in your blood. When combined with high levels of blood sugar, blood lipids can become extra sticky, and blood vessels are more likely to clog.
• Quitting smoking - while a good idea for everyone - is an especially good idea for people with diabetes. That’s because smoking narrows your blood vessels and restricts the flow of blood to your cells.
• Exercising - besides helping you control blood sugar levels and your weight - makes your entire cardiovascular system work more efficiently, so your heart won’t have to work as hard. And exercise will help lower your blood pressure as well. Remember to check with your health professional before beginning any exercise program.

HIGH CHOLESTEROL

Cigarette smoking, high blood pressure, and diabetes can increase the risk of high cholesterol and also increase the risk of coronary artery disease. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), some 53 million Americans have high cholesterol and the death toll from heart disease is about 500,000 a year. To try and reduce these numbers and prolong lives, the NIH has formed new guidelines for physicians treating people at risk for heart disease.

These aggressive new guidelines could nearly triple the number of Americans taking cholesterol-lowering drugs. Experts say deaths from heart disease could be reduced dramatically. “We can now say with certainty that lowering a high blood cholesterol level, specifically high LDL or bad cholesterol, dramatically reduces a person’s risk for coronary heart disease,” said Dr. Claude Lenfant, director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. “If the guidelines are followed and the number of Americans who are appropriately treated goes up, we anticipate that deaths from heart disease will go down and lives will be prolonged.” Cholesterol has received increasing attention in recent years. If there is too much LDL, it can slowly build up in the walls of the arteries feeding the heart and brain, forming a thick, hard deposit that can clog those arteries. A clot in the region of this plaque can block the flow of blood to part of the heart muscle, causing a heart attack. A clot in the brain causes a stroke.

While nearly two thirds of people with type 2 diabetes experience some form of cardiovascular disease, only one third consider it a serious complication of their disease, according to a survey released by the American Heart Association (AHA). “When people are diagnosed with diabetes there is a great emphasis on controlling blood sugar and the metabolic issues,” Dr. Smith pointed out. “I don’t think we’ve done as thorough a job on emphasizing heart disease and its contributions to mortality in this group.”

UNDERSTANDING CHOLESTEROL

Cholesterol can’t be dissolved in water or blood. It travels in the blood by joining with proteins that carry them in and out of the body tissues. These carriers are called lipoproteins, a combination of the words lipid and protein.

• LDL (low-density-lipoprotein) is the major carrier for cholesterol in the blood. LDL is called the “bad” cholesterol. When you have too much LDL cholesterol, it sticks to your blood vessel walls and forms plaque. This plaque gets in the way of the blood flowing through an artery. If this happens in an artery of the heart a heart attack may happen.
• HDL (high-density lipoprotein) takes cholesterol away from the blood vessel walls and into the liver, where it is used for other purposes.

LEVELS FOR ADULTS

MEDICATION CAN HELP

There are medications available that can help lower your cholesterol. These medications can dramatically lower LDL (“bad”)cholesterol, while increasing HDL (“good”) cholesterol. As long as you take your medication every day, you could see the full effects on cholesterol within four to six weeks.

These medications work silently to reduce cholesterol. If you don’t feel stronger or healthier after taking medication on a daily basis, that does not mean that it isn’t helping to lower your cholesterol. Remember, medications can work for you only if you stick with it every day as recommended by your doctor. So visit your doctor regularly to check your cholesterol-lowering progress.