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Navigate the dual journey of diabetes and heart disease with Dr Biswaranjan Jena
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Welcome to a journey towards holistic well-being! In our blog post, “Diabetes and Heart Disease: A Holistic Approach to Wellness,” we confront a stark reality: the undeniable connection between diabetes and heart disease. Beyond mere coexistence, these conditions often form a tandem challenge that demands our attention. As we unravel the intricate linkages, we urge you to ponder this powerful truth – neglecting the connection between diabetes and heart disease is akin to navigating a storm without understanding its origins.
Join us in gaining insights, discovering strategies, and embracing a holistic approach that addresses this crucial relationship. Let’s embark on a journey where awareness meets action, fostering a healthier, empowered you.
Understanding the Link between Diabetes and heart disease
Think of your body as a finely tuned orchestra, where every instrument plays a role in harmony. Similarly, diabetes and heart disease, though different instruments, can affect each other’s tune.
Impact on Heart Health:
If your body is an orchestra, diabetes is the first musician. It doesn’t just stick to its solo – it can affect how the heart plays its part. It’s like sugar influencing the harmony of blood vessels. When sugar levels are high, it’s like throwing in unexpected notes that can mess with the heart’s rhythm. So, managing diabetes isn’t just about keeping sugar in check; it’s about maintaining a sweet melody for your heart.
Doctor continues – “Except blocking the heart vessels causing heart attack. Diabetes can cause other serious complications in heart. High blood sugar can directly affect heart muscles and may cause both types of heart failures –
1. Heart failure with reduced ejection fraction
2. Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.”
Shared Risk Factors:
Now, let’s talk about shared risk factors – think of it as finding common ground in two different songs. High blood pressure and cholesterol are like tunes that both diabetes and heart disease play. Understanding these shared factors is like recognizing that these two musicians are singing from the same sheet. By tackling sheet alone, you’re addressing controlling both musicians. It’s like hitting the right notes to create a balanced and healthy duet for your body.
Doctor continues – “Baring blood vessels and muscles, high blood sugar can directly affect nerve supply to the heart leading to Cardiac Autonomic Neuropathy (CAN), causing arrhythmia and which can cause sudden cardiac death.
The Domino Effect:
Imagine your health as a row of falling dominoes. Diabetes is like the first domino, and it doesn’t stop there. It triggers a chain reaction. For example, it might set off an inflammation, and that inflammation can throw off the heart’s rhythm. Managing diabetes is not just about stopping one domino; it’s more about preventing a chain reaction that could mess with your heart’s beat. Understanding this domino effect helps you orchestrate a healthier tune for both diabetes and heart disease.
A2G - you need 7 Lifestyle Strategies to control diabetes and heart disease
Living a healthier life involves more than just managing symptoms; it’s about making positive changes that benefit your overall well-being. Here are some simple and practical ways to adopt a holistic approach to manage diabetes and prevent heart disease:
Stay well-hydrated during the day, and sip lots of water. Take at least 2 liters of water a day. Water helps flush out the toxins the body generates throughout the day and the excessive salts and impurities from the food. Without adequate water, these undesired substances prevent smooth blood flow in the body and complicate diabetes and heart disease.
If you find drinking water is a challenge for you, then read our blog for an easy way to stay hydrated.
Focus on a well-rounded diet made up of colorful fruits like apples, bananas, oranges, and guava, vegetables like cabbage, tomatoes, okra, beans, and carrots, and whole grains like wheat, millet, and oats. These are good for the heart and they supply stable blood sugar levels and help control diabetes. Try to reduce processed foods, sugary snacks, and excessive salt and saturated fats in your meal.
3. Sleep enough:
Ensure you get enough sleep at night. Make it a habit to get around 7-8 hours of sleep daily. Lack of sleep can cause insulin resistance and increase the risk of heart disease. Chronic lack of sleep increases the risk of developing hypertension (higher blood pressure levels) and hyperlipidemia (higher cholesterol levels).
4. destress yourself:
Find effective ways to manage stress, such as deep breathing, meditation, or engaging in hobbies.Chronic stress can accelerate both diabetes and heart disease, so it’s crucial to find healthy coping mechanisms.
5. Exercise Regularly:
Keep at least 30 minutes a day of moderate-to-intense physical activity in your routine that requires heavy breathing, such as brisk walks, swimming, or cycling. Such exercises help take more oxygen and flush out toxic gases like carbon dioxide from the body. Exercises help blood reach all the cells in the body evenly and control blood sugar levels. Improved blood circulation also helps a healthy heart.
6. Focus on your meal
Observe the signals your body sends when it is hungry or full. Eat mindfully and steer clear of emotional eating if you want to enjoy your food. A person doesn’t know how much the person is eating if occupied with mobile or in some emotional moment like extremely happy or sad. Strictly avoid emotional eating or distractions when you take meals.
7. Give up smoking
If you smoke, think about getting help to stop. Smoking is a significant risk factor for both diabetes and heart disease and can be complicated. Studies suggest smoking increases the risk of heart disease by up to two to four times. Quitting of smoking cuts developing type-2 diabetes by 30-40%.
If you are a heavy smoker, reduce the frequency of smoking, or if you are a mild smoker, stop smoking immediately.
Doctor continues – “Avoid fatty foods especially red meat. and fast food items. A strict NO to alcohol use and smoking. Sleep 8 hours a day to give enough time to the body to clear out toxins that develop during the awakening time. It significantly helps reduce stress and cholesterol and improves overall well-being.”
Closing Note
Doctor concludes by saying “Along with lifestyle changes, you need to check the progress of your health regularly to detect and prevent diabetes and heart disease. If you observe chest pain, short breaths, easy fatigue, or palpitations then it’s better to consult a doctor. However, some diabetes patients may not get any chest pain (angina) known as silent myocardial infarction. Therefore regular check-ups like ECG, echo, TMT, heart enzymes, and if necessary, invasive studies like coronary angiography / cardiac catheterization help early diagnosis. For monitoring purposes, follow ABC – “A for hab1c of 7”, “B for blood pressure of less than 130/ 80” and “C for LDL cholesterol level of less than 70.”
Dr Biswaranjan Jena, Md(Medicine) DM (Cardiology) is a Senior Interventional Cardiologist with more than 15 years of experience. He has done PDCC (Diabetes) from CMC, vellore. He is a Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology (FESC) and Fellow of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (FSCAI). His contact details can be found here.