Healthy- Type 2 Diabetes Diabetes, Smoking, and Heart Disease

Healthy- Type 2 Diabetes Diabetes, Smoking, and Heart Disease

Research confirms and often discovers new information, treatments and areas that relates to various diseases, including Type 2 diabetes. If you have Type 2 diabetes and do smoke, it has been revealed this raises your risk of heart disease.

Researchers at Soochow University in China set out to discover how a combination of both smoking and having a diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes, might affect the chances of developing heart disease.

The study, published January 2012 in the International Journal of Cardiology, included 3,598 non-diabetic adults who were followed for 8 years. By the end of the study: 82 of the participants developed heart and blood vessel disease.

Not surprisingly, both smokers and people with the metabolic syndrome, a condition that includes:

• high blood sugar levels,
• high blood pressure,
• obesity,
• high cholesterol level, and
• high blood fats,

showed a higher risk for heart and blood vessel disease than non-smokers and those without the metabolic syndrome.

Smokers who also had the metabolic syndrome had a 1.81 times higher risk of developing heart and blood vessel disease as those who only smoked or only had the metabolic syndrome.

From the above, it was concluded the combination of smoking and the metabolic syndrome created an even greater risk of heart and blood vessel disease than either of these risk factors alone.

According to the Cleveland Clinic in the United States:

• more than 20 per cent of Americans have the metabolic syndrome, and
• 40 per cent of those over 60 have it.

According to Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, March of 2007, the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome in Australians was between 13.4 and 30.7 per cent. A European study published in the Journal of Hypertension in 2008 found the metabolic syndrome in 66.5 per cent of people who had uncontrolled hypertension (high blood pressure), and in 35.5 per cent of those successfully treated for hypertension.

Metabolic syndrome can be diagnosed using:

• blood sugar levels,
• cholesterol and fat levels,
• blood pressure measurements, and
• waist measurements.

Once the diagnosis is made, a plan for a low-calorie, low cholesterol, low sugar, plant-based diet can be implemented. Fruits and vegetables with low glycemic index add little sugar to the diet and their high fiber content slows absorption of dietary sugar.

Regular exercise will help your body to use the sugar it does take in, as well as helping your body to take fat out of storage. Taking walks every day is a good way to lower blood pressure. When diet and exercise are not enough, a variety of medications aimed at specific components of the metabolic syndrome are available.

Stopping smoking is not an easy task, but it is possible. Some people are able to stop at once, while others are able to stop by gradually tapering off. Medical treatment is available when other attempts fail. Check with your doctor about local programs. Many local health departments and local hospitals provide smoking cessation classes.

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