Blood Circulatory & Diabetics
High blood sugar, the result of uncontrolled diabetes, can damage a variety of organs and systems in your body, including the large and small blood vessels.
Large Blood Vessels
As you may already know, people with diabetes are often advised to take steps to prevent heart disease. This is because high blood sugar can damage the blood vessels, causing them to thicken and become blocked. Damage to large blood vessels can result in:1
• heart disease
• stroke
• leg and foot problems
Small Blood Vessels
In addition, many of the most common long-term complications of diabetes are caused by damage to the small blood vessels. These include:
• eye damage2
• kidney disease2
• skin problems3
• nerve damage, or neuropathy2
The Best Solution? Prevention
The Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT) and United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS) each proved that tighter control of blood sugar significantly reduces the risk of long-term complications due to blood vessel damage.2
The most reliable course of treatment of blood vessel problems is taking steps to prevent it early on or keep existing problems from getting worse. Here's what you can do right now:
•Keep your blood sugar within the ranges outlined by your
healthcare team. Every 1% reduction in your A1C quarterly test
results can reduce the risk of complications caused by small
blood vessel damage by up to 40%.1
•Control your blood pressure. This can reduce your risk of heart
disease or stroke by up to 50%, and your risk of eye, kidney and
nerve disease by 33%.2
•If you smoke, get help and quit. Smoking has been clearly
associated with raising blood pressure and affecting heart
health.
4
1 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "National diabetes fact sheet: general information and national estimates on diabetes in the United States, 2005." Available at: http://www.diabetes.org/uedocuments/
NationalDiabetesFactSheetRev.pdf. Accessed August 2, 2007.
2 National Diabetes Education Program. "Impact of Controlling the ABCs of Diabetes." Available at: http://ndep.nih.gov/diabetes/WTMD/impact.htm. Accessed August 2, 2007.
3 American Diabetes Association. "Skin Complications." Available at: http://diabetes.org/for-parents-and-kids/what-is-diabetes/skin-complications.jsp. Accessed August 2, 2007.
4 American Heart Association. "Cigarette Smoking and Cardiovascular Diseases." Available at: http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4545. Accessed August 2, 2007.