Diabetes
facts
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Diabetes facts you should know 
- Caring for the 99 million Americans with chronic
conditions such as diabetes, asthma and hypertension accounts for the
majority of the 1 trillion dollars spent on healthcare annually.
- Fifty percent of type 2 diabetics are diagnosed
at the time of their first heart attack.
- Young men between ages 15-25 already show significant
cardiovascular disease (CVD), an LDL is a major risk factor that is
modifiable by diet and exercise – if it is known to be elevated (USA
Today Article).
- There is the same risk of death in people with
diabetes without known CVD and patients with CVD and history of MI.
(Source: Indiana Heart Institute)
- At least 10.3 million Americans carry a diagnosis
of diabetes mellitus. Another 5.4 million are estimated to have undiagnosed
diabetes. (Source: American Heart Association)
- CVDs are listed as the cause of death in approximately
65 percent of people with diabetes.
- Diabetes acts as an independent risk factor for
several forms of CVD. To make matters worse, when patients with diabetes
develop clinical CVD, they sustain a worse prognosis for survival than
do CVD patients without diabetes. (Source:
American Heart Association)
- Myocardial ischemia due to coronary atherosclerosis
commonly occurs without symptoms in patients with diabetes. As a result,
multivessel atherosclerosis often is present before ischemic symptoms
occur and before treatment is instituted. (Source:
American Heart Association)
- Improved glycemic control, better control of hypertension,
and prevention of atherosclerois with cholesterol-lowering therapy may
prevent of mitigate diabetic cardiomyopathy. (Source:
American Heart Association)
- Mortality from stroke is increased almost 3-fold
when patients with diabetes are matched to those without diabetes.
(Source: Diabetes Care 1993; 16: 434-444)
- Prospective studies document an increased likelihood
of sudden cardiac death and unrecognized myocardial infarction in patients
with diabetes. (Source: American Journal of
Medicine 1986)
- “Coronary artery disease is the most common cause
of premature death in both men and women with diabetes. Thus, optimal
care should be to address atherosclerotic risk factors, which in diabetic
patients center on elevated triglyceride levels and decreased high-density
lipoprotein cholesterol levels” Geoffrey Gates, M.D., Mayo Clinic.
- Low HDL levels and elevated Total Cholesterol:
HDL ratios are associated with increased coronary risk. (Source:
Framingham Study JAMA 1986; 256:2835-2838)
Factors that influence HDL
- Smoking, obesity, lack of exercise, androgenic
steroids, and beta blockers are associated with lower HDL.
- Estrogens, smoking cessation, high saturated fat
diet (also elevates LDL), regular aerobic exercise and ethanol ingestion
elevated HDL.
- There is epidemiologic evidence that triglycerides
are a risk factor for coronary artery disease.
(Source: Framingham Study)
- In 1997 the estimated cost associated with diabetes
in the United States was $98 billion. That included $44.1 billion in
direct costs and an additional $54 billion in indirect costs due to
disability and mortality.
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