World Diabetes Day: November 14 is observed as World Diabetes Day. India houses the second largest number of people with diabetes (>95% is type 2 diabetes) only second to China. According to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), with the current explosive growth trends, the number of diabetics is likely to increase to 134 million in 2045 from 77 million in 2019. The reality is that India is the diabetes capital of the world as large percentage of the diabetic patients actually don't know that they have the disease (undiagnosed diabetes). The diabetes epidemic in our country is fuelled by a major socio-demographic-nutritional and environmental change in India.

People are moving towards urbanisation, eating habits are changing towards more processes calorie dense foods (fast/junk foods), people are becoming physically inactive, stress levels are peaking and environmental pollution is shifting the balance towards greater risk of diabetes. Very importantly India is a young country, and diabetes is now afflicting the young population, afflicting them at the prime years of life.

World Diabetes Day: Know the link between diabetes and cardiac disease

The relation of diabetes and heart disease is an important one. Facts about diabetes and the heart:

1. Presence of diabetes increase the risk for heart disease by 2-4 times.

2. The main reason for loss of quality and quantity of life in a diabetic patient is heart disease.

3. Diabetics may develop heart disease at an earlier age as compared to their non-diabetic counterparts.

4. Heart disease in diabetics has a greater likelyhood of being more severe and involve multiple arteries of the heart.

5. Important risk factors which predict future risk of heart disease in a diabetic patient: age, gender, family history of heart disease, bad eating habits, physical inactivity, obesity, hypertension, high cholesterol, smoking/tobacco, alcohol, mental stress etc.

6. One of the main reason for advising strict sugar control to diabetic patients is to limit the future risk of heart disease.

7. Strict sugar control, as early as possible once diabetes is diagnosed is one of the very important way to minimize the future risk for heart disease.

8. Optimal sugar control in the early years after diagnosis of diabetes helps create a good 'metabolic memory' in the body which translates in to a 'legacy' of prevention of heart disease events in the future.

Media Contact
John Mathews
Journal Manager
Current Trends in Cardiology
Email: cardiologyres@eclinicalsci.com