Diabetes and Heart Disease Linked
Gains in reducing deaths due to heart disease could be greatly reduced by the trend for an upsurge in diabetes, according to a report in the medical journal Diabetes.
"Over the past 30 years, the US has achieved dramatic reductions in illness and deaths from coronary artery disease," says study lead author Dr. Jing Fang, at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
"But if this upsurge in diabetes-associated deaths and illnesses continues, it may put an end to the progress we've made in combating illness and death from coronary artery disease," he says.
Diabetes affects an estimated 18 million people in the US (90 percent to 95 percent have type 2 diabetes) - 13 million have been diagnosed, but 5.2 million are unaware they have the disease.
According to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) and the American Diabetes Association, those affected include:
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9.3 million US women (8.7 percent of all women)
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8.7 million US men (8.7 percent of all men
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206,000 people under age 20
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8.6 million adults over age 60
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2.7 million African Americans (11.4 percent of all African Americans)
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2 million Hispanic/Latino Americans (8.2 percent of all Hispanic/Latino Americans)
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12.5 million Caucasian Americans (8.2 percent of all Caucasian Americans)
According to the most recent statistics, diabetes was the sixth leading cause of death, and the fifth leading cause of death from disease.
Diabetes costs $90 billion annually in direct medical costs. It costs $40 billion annually in indirect costs (loss of work, disability, loss of life).
"Diabetes has reached epidemic proportions in the US and the leading cause of death among people with diabetes is coronary heart disease," notes senior author Dr. Michael Alderman, professor of epidemiology and population health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
"We expected to see an increase in hospitalizations due to heart attacks among diabetics, but we were surprised by the magnitude of the increase and the sharply rising trend indicated by these findings," says Dr. Alderman.
Dr. Fang's team analyzed New York City death records for people 35 and older from 1989 to 1991 and from 1999 to 2001.
In the decade that elapsed between these two periods, death rates due to stroke, cancer, and all other diseases declined.
The exception was the diabetes death rate, which increased by 61 percent.
Over that decade, the percentage of heart attacks among people with diabetes increased from 21 percent to 36 percent.
The total number of diabetics who had a heart attack more than doubled - from 2,951 to 6,048.
While there was an overall decline among the general population in days spent in a hospital due to heart attack, diabetics showed an increase of 51 percent.
Always consult your physician for more information.
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Diabetes is a metabolic disorder characterized by a failure to secrete enough insulin, or, in some cases, the cells do not respond appropriately to the insulin that is produced.
Because insulin is needed by the body to convert glucose into energy, these failures result in abnormally high levels of glucose accumulating in the blood.
Diabetes may be a result of other conditions such as genetic syndromes, chemicals, drugs, malnutrition, infections, viruses, or other illnesses.
The three main types of diabetes - type 1, type 2, and gestational - are all defined as metabolic disorders that affect the way the body metabolizes, or uses, digested food to make glucose, the main source of fuel for the body.
In prediabetes, blood glucose levels are higher than normal but not high enough to be defined as diabetes.
However, many people with prediabetes develop type 2 diabetes within 10 years, states the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). Prediabetes also increases the risk of heart disease and stroke. With modest weight loss and moderate physical activity, people with prediabetes can delay or prevent type 2 diabetes.
For glucose to be able to move into the cells of the body, the hormone insulin must be present.
Insulin is produced primarily in the pancreas, and, normally, is readily available to move glucose into the cells.
However, in persons with diabetes, either the pancreas produces too little or no insulin, or the cells do not respond to the insulin that is produced.
This causes a build-up of glucose in the blood, which passes into the urine where it is eventually eliminated, leaving the body without its main source of fuel.
Always consult your physician for more information.
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