Cardiovascular Disease - Long Term Complications: Diabetes
Cardiovascular Disease - Long Term Complications: Diabetes
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Cardiovascular disease
Three out of four people with diabetes die from a heart disease or stroke. While experts don't fully understand the causal relationship between diabetes and cardiovascular disease, it's clear that diabetes — especially type 2 diabetes — is often accompanied by various heart disease risk factors, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high triglycerides, and obesity. Diabetes is also associated with an increased tendency for forming clots. Kidney disease, a complication of diabetes, also considerably boosts the risk for heart disease. And studies have demonstrated an association between the earliest stage of kidney disease (microalbuminuria) and heart disease. In addition, high blood sugar levels cause glycation (the attachment of glucose to proteins and lipids) and increase the tendency for oxidation. Some scientists suspect that oxidized LDL cholesterol initiates the inflammatory damage that causes atherosclerosis, the buildup of fatty deposits in artery walls. These fatty deposits evolve into plaques that thicken artery walls. When the plaques rupture, immune system cells and platelets (blood cell components that initiate the clotting process) rush to the scene. A blood clot forms, obstructing blood flow.
It can take years for complications to appear, but when they do, they're usually serious. Restricted blood flow to the heart may trigger the chest pain called angina. A critical lack of blood can also cause a heart attack, in which a portion of the heart muscle dies. When blood flow to the brain is blocked, a stroke can occur. A symptom of peripheral vascular disease called intermittent claudication involves pain in leg muscles during exercise. This pain arises from obstructions in the arteries of the legs.
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