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Diabetes and Heart Disease:
Can We Sever This Deadly Link?
by Christopher D. Saudek, M.D.
Even more unsettling is the fact that we needn't be in the shape we are in. Current research shows there is much we can do to reduce the risk of heart disease in people with diabetes, and more still that the nation's 16 million people with diabetes can do to maintain overall good health. Yet surveys show we are not putting this information to good use.
Consider these startling statistics
- Just 20 percent of people who have diabetes and high blood pressure are keeping their blood pressure under control.
- Doctors had failed to prescribe ACE inhibitors, a type of blood pressure control drug shown to offer this population protection from cardiovascular disease, to fewer than half the patients with both diabetes and high blood pressure.
- A mere 7.3 percent of patients with diabetes are keeping their lipids (fats in the blood) under control, despite decades of public education.
- Recent studies show that obesity and overweight are the most critical factors in predicting the development of type 2 diabetes — and are major risk factors in the development of heart disease — yet Americans remain substantially overweight. More than 50 percent of adults in America are considered overweight.
Make the Link
The Association's campaign, "Make the Link: Diabetes, Heart Disease and Stroke," endeavors to educate both doctors and patients about how they can better monitor and control diabetes and what they can do to reduce patients' risks for DCVD.
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