Diabetes Causes of Heart Disease

Study has shown that diabetes causes of heart disease, diabetics are twice as likely to have heart disease than non-diabetics. Generally, there are 2 types of diabetes:
Type 1 diabetes - a status where the body creates little or no insulin, a hormone that helps to maintain blood sugar levels.
Type 2 diabetes - The body has turn immune to the effects of the insulin it creates. Type 2 diabetes is common.

More Children Are Affected With Diabetes
Approximately 90 percent of diabetics around the world have Type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes usually happens in the middle age, however, more and more young people are being found with Type 2 diabetes.

Children as young as eight years old can be affected by diabetes. However, most cases happens when a child is age 12 or older.

The reason for this increment in numbers among the young of today, is their diet. Unhealthy lifestyles are the result in more people becoming diabetic. Many young people snack frequently on fast food, increasing their risk of getting diabetes. Most fast food, like burgers and fries, are high in fat and refined carbohydrates, which can raise blood-sugar levels and cause obesity. All this put them at higher risk of getting the heart disease.

Heart Attack Risk
People with diabetes have a higher-than-average risk of having a heart attack. Over time, high blood-sugar levels can hasten the accumulation of fatty deposits (cholesterol) on the insides of the blood vessel walls. These deposits could affect blood flow, increasing the chance of clogging up and solidifying of blood vessels (atherosclerosis).

The most common type of heart disease in diabetics is coronary artery disease. Coronary artery disease is a assigned term for the narrowing of heart arteries by Cholesterol deposition and typically involves the major arteries of the heart. Coronary artery disease is more severe in people with diabetes.

It affects both the major arteries as well as smaller ones. When smaller arteries also get clogged up, this is known as small vessel disease. Damage is more widespread. Small vessel disease is more difficult to deal with because they are typically less than 2mm in diameter and are typically not suitable for coronary stents. Stents are the minute scaffolding used to keep the walls of a blocked artery open. Hence, it is vital for young people to cultivate a healthy lifestyle to ward off diabetes.

Besides the heart disease risks associated with diabetes, young people can also face heightening insurance costs. Life assurance probably will become more expensive and hard to acquire. A healthy lifestyle is not difficult to stick to, provided one quits smoking, exercises more and avoids being overweight.

For those who are already a diabetic, effective control over the disease is the key issue. This means visiting a general practitioner or diabetes specialist for medical checkups and maintaining blood-sugar levels in check.

In addition, levels of LDL-Cholesterol, or bad cholesterol, should also be kept low to reduce the risk of heart attacks.