Heart of Diabetes

 Exercising daily and eating a well balanced diet with the proper portion sizes are the best prevention for diabetes.

The relationship between diabetes and heart disease is striking. Many do not even know they have diabetes or are pre-diabetic. If you are overweight, or have a family history of diabetes it is important to work with your health care practitioner to watch your blood sugars control.  Many clients I have worked with through the years were able to get their pre-diabetic blood sugar values back to normal through diet and exercise. Many diabetics can reduce the medications for blood sugar control as well if they are able to adhere to the lifestyle choices of exercise and following a diabetic diet of good food choices and portion control.

Those that have diabetes need to be extra cautious to keep there blood sugars in the tightest control possible, as when the blood sugars are chronically elevated this sets the stage for dramatic increases in the prevalence of heart disease. Overeating sets the stage for insulin resistance. An analogy to help understand this is  filling a gas tank, you can only put so much gas in before it spills out. When we consume more calories than the body can use the body secretes more insulin and it circulates in the blood stream. The cells get adapted to the increased insulin this is called insulin resistance. This allows higher concentrations of blood sugar to circulate in the body. The higher blood sugars assault  the body, the eyes, heart, kidneys, nerves, arteries  throughout especially those to the legs and kidneys, setting the stage for not only heart problems but peripheral vascular problems, the most common reason for amputations. Exercise is critically important and should be adhered as it gets rid of the high concentrations of sugar circulating in the blood stream, and prevents them from doing more damage.

It becomes even more challenging too, as the most common symptom of heart problems – chest discomfort is less likely to be experienced by the diabetic patient, as the nerves that send the pain  signal to the brain do not relay the message. Thus symptoms are more likely to be shortness of breath, flu like symptoms, extreme fatigue, weakness in the diabetic patient. The hemoglobic A1c value is especially important to understand. The values are listed below.