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Female Diabetics More Risk Of Heart Disease!
 

A diabetic is one who has high blood sugar, either because his or her pancreas cannot produce sufficient insulin or when his or her body cannot effectively use the insulin that is produced. Insulin is a hormone that regulates blood sugar.

If condition of diabetes is not managed and controlled appropriately, it might damage many of the body’s systems, including heart, blood vessels, eyes, kidneys, and nerves. Diabetes can raise the risk of heart disease and stroke, blindness, kidney failure, nerve damage and limb amputation.

According to the statistic compiled by the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 220 million people worldwide have diabetes. In 2005, an estimated 1.1 million people died from diabetes. Almost half of diabetics died were under the age of 70 years, 55 percent of the victims were women. WHO has even predicted that the death will double between 2005 and 2030.

In the United States, number of diabetics has increased tremendously. Cases among people between 30 and 40 years old had increased by 76 percent over the past 10 years. It is estimated that more than 2.5 million women are not aware they have affected by the disease. Presently, 60 percent of diabetics are women. African-American, Alaskan Native, American Indian and Hispanic women are at a much greater risk of diabetes than Caucasian women.

Diabetes and its complications would certainly have an economic impact not only on the individuals and their families but also on the public health systems and the countries they reside. An estimation made by WHO showed that, in the period between 2006 and 2015, $558 billion in foregone national income will be lost in China because of heart disease, stroke and diabetes alone.

Women are believed to be at a much lower risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality than men. However, diabetes takes away this advantage from women, placing them at a higher risk of heart disease than men. In reality, conflicting results had been obtained, making extend of such increased risk to be rather controversial.

A study published in the July 2000’s issue of “Diabetes Care” indicated that the impact of diabetes on the risk of coronary death is significantly greater for women than men. Researchers from the Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada found that the relative risk of coronary death from diabetes was 2.58 for women and 1.85 for men, after adjusting for other cardiac risk factors. Such difference is statistically significant.

In another study, researchers from Ralph H Johnson Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Charleston, SC in United States found that established CHD in men signifies a higher risk for CHD mortality than diabetes while diabetes in women is associated with greater risk for CHD mortality. Their findings were published on July 28, 2003 in "Archives of Internal Medicine". The findings had prompted the researchers to suggest more aggressive treatments for women with diabetes to match their CHD mortality risk.

Women would have a higher risk of dying after suffering a heart attack or having a second heart attack than do men. In America, heart disease kills more than 50,000 more women than men.

What should women do to lessen their risk? According to health experts, women should take A1C test (hemoglobin-A1C) to measure their average blood glucose over the last 3 months. The recommended target is below 7. Meanwhile, they should also monitor their blood pressure making sure that their blood pressures are not exceeding 120/80. Last but not least, they have to watch out for their cholesterol level, especially the bad cholesterol (LDL) that will builds up and clog the arteries. The targeted LDL level should be below 100 mg/dL (or 2.6 mmol/L).

Cholesterol levels are measured in milligrams (mg) of cholesterol per deciliter (dL) of blood in the United States and some other countries. Canada and most European countries measure cholesterol in millimoles (mmol) per liter (L) of blood.

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