How diabetes affects the heart

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Extract from the article: Diabetes is a condition in which sugar is permanently present in the blood. Nazife Lawani, Medical Assistant and Specialist in Diabetes Care at the Centre Hospitalier Préfectoral (CHP) de Badou, points out that complications of the heart and arteries

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Diabetes is a condition in which sugar is permanently present in the blood. Nazife Lawani, Medical Assistant and Specialist in Diabetes Care at the Centre Hospitalier Préfectoral (CHP) de Badou, points out that complications of the heart and arteries are 2 to 4 times more frequent in people with diabetes than in the rest of the population. Combined with other factors such as high blood pressure, smoking and high cholesterol, the risk of developing cardiovascular complications increases. Balancing your diabetes and being aware of and acting jointly on other risk factors are essential ways of avoiding cardiovascular disease and limiting its effects.

Diabetes can lead to cardiovascular complications or heart, vascular or arterial disorders. According to Nazife Lawani, Medical Assistant and Specialist in Diabetes Care at Badou Hospital, diabetes also affects the large blood vessels, including the arteries in the neck, legs and heart. Cardiovascular disease is the most common cause of death in people with diabetes.

« Because of chronic hyperglycaemia or its association with other cardiovascular risk factors such as excess blood triglycerides, obesity, high blood pressure and a sedentary lifestyle, diabetes encourages the development of fatty plaques or atheroma, which form and spread over the inner walls of the arteries », explains Nazife Lawani, Medical Assistant and Specialist in Diabetes Care. As atherosclerotic plaque thickens, it narrows the diameter of the artery (stenosis), gradually impeding the flow of blood to the organs and depriving them of oxygen. « Eventually, these plaques can completely block the artery.When the plaques are unstable, they can rupture and lead to the formation of clots (thrombosis), which end up suddenly blocking the artery.Excess sugar in the blood encourages the formation of these clots. Initially, atherosclerotic plaques often develop without symptoms, but if not treated early, they can lead to cardiovascular accidents.The organs that depend on the blood supply carried by these blood vessels will suffer, and some areas may even be destroyed », explains Nazife Lawani, Medical Assistant, Specialist in Diabetes Care.

Nazife Lawani stresses that the most common types of damage are to the coronary arteries: « coronary thrombosis, for example, is the formation of a clot in the arteries that supply blood to the heart. It can lead to myocardial infarction or heart attack; arteries in the neck can cause vascular accidents in the brain, or strokes; arteries in the lower limbs can cause obliterative arteriopathy of the lower limbs (AOMI) », explains the specialist.

William O