It's not just about your heart!

TGIF Bloggers,

As promised bloggers, here is a two-day special on diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and your chance to win Micah Marie Jewelry!

I know what you’re thinking- why is she blabbing about diabetes when this blog is about heart disease?

Trust me.

Diabetes and cardiovascular disease have a LOT in common- mostly several of the same risk factors, but diabetes is actually one of the leading causes of heart disease. If you’ve survived a heart attack or stroke, having diabetes makes you more likely to have even more complications. 

What is diabetes?

Having diabetes means that your body has a problem with the way it uses food for energy. When you something- let’s revisit the pickle from our salt discussion- it gets broken down into components, one of them being glucose. Glucose is a type of sugar in your blood stream and is the main source of energy for your body. In order for your body to use glucose, a substance called insulin has to be present. Insulin is produced by your pancreas, a gland behind your stomach. In people with diabetes, three things can go wrong with your pancreas.

• 1.       Your pancreas produces little or no insulin, so you have trouble using the glucose in your blood stream. This is known as Type 1 diabetes.
• 2.       Your body doesn’t know how to use the insulin that your pancreas produces, so again, you have trouble using glucose. This is known as Type 2 diabetes.
• 3.       Both of these things. This is typically Type 2 diabetes.

In any case, when you have diabetes, you have an unusually large amount of glucose floating in your blood stream that your cells can’t use. 

So what does that have to do with my cardiovascular health?

Having a ton of extra glucose in your blood stream does damage to your blood vessels by increasing the amount of plaque that sticks to your artery walls. All of that glucose floating in your blood stream is eventually turned into some kind of fat. Also, there is some evidence that the high levels of glucose may also damage the cells on the walls of your arteries as well (I’ve saved you from a LOT of science, but check out this article if you’re really interested). Diabetes leads to narrowed arteries (due to plaque build-up), nerve damage, and decreased blood flow. 

What do diabetes and cardiovascular disease have in common?

These risk factors:

Having obesity. Or wiggle. Or badonk. Whatever you want to call it. Having central obesity (the kind where you carry most of your extra wiggle in your midsection, not your badonk or hips) increases your risk. Chances are that you got your central obesity from a poor diet and lack of exercise- the extra food intake and lack of energy usage makes your pancreas work harder.

Having high cholesterol: This means that you probably already have some plaque build-up in your arteries.

Having high blood pressure: High blood pressure puts extra strain on the heart and vessels, causing damage that will be made worse by the extra glucose in your system. High blood pressure will make you more likely to experience a heart attack, stroke, eye problems, and kidney problems. 

Smoking: Other than the obvious damage that smoking does to your system, it will further narrow your blood vessels, and damage the vessels in your legs, increasing your risk of amputation due to poor circulation. 

Check back tomorrow for the final installment of your diabetes and cardiovascular disease course!

Have a fantastic Friday!

Don't forget to e-mail me at slachapelle@richland.org to enter our Micah Marie Jewelry contest! Just tell me what you are going to do to prevent heart disease in your life and you'll be entered!

From my heart to yours,

Red