How is diabetes linked to heart disease?
Diabetes increases your risk of developing cardiovascular disease. High glucose levels can affect the artery walls, encouraging fatty deposits to develop. If you have diabetes, you are more likely to have high cholesterol levels and high blood pressure. Diabetes also increases the effect of some of the other risk factors for cardiovascular disease – such as smoking and being overweight. What can I do? A simple blood test will determine if you have diabetes. If you don’t have diabetes, you can greatly reduce your risk of developing it by controlling your weight and doing regular physical activity. If you do have diabetes, it’s very important to make sure that you control your blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol. This will help to keep your risk of cardiovascular disease as low as possible. Find out as much as possible about your diabetes by talking with your Dr or health care provider at the health centers. If this article has raised any questions for you, GET ANSWERS! See someo
