Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease Risk: The Missing Link

Diabetic people could be at six times higher risk of heart diseases and stroke, irrespective of

their present health and cholesterol levels, recent studies suggest.

In nearly fifty percent diabetic people observed in these studies, researchers have been able to

identify minute protein levels released into the bloodstream when heart cells die. Researchers

used ultra-sensitive tests and checks, which helped them in finding these proteins. These

findings implicate that diabetic persons may be suffering from a potentially dangerous heart

muscle damage, a heart cardiovascular condition, due to high levels of blood sugar.

Heart diseases are the no. 1 cause of mortality in the world and a leading factor of death among

diabetic people. The cause of cardiovascular diseases in the diabetic has been considered due

to atherosclerosis or hardening of the arteries up till now. However, new researches show a

large section of diabetic people is at increased risk of cardiac death and heart failure, without

the common culprits such as atherosclerosis and bad cholesterol.

The findings make one to believe that diabetes slowly kills heart muscles, not what we had

thought of before of cardiovascular risk in the diabetic. The ray of hope: a test has to be done

to detect even the slightest increase in troponin levels. Troponin is the protein that's released

into the bloodstream at the demise of heart cells. Such test can be used to screen diabetic

person for chronic heart damage.

New studies also question the necessity for giving statin--a popular drug for lowering

cholesterol levels--to diabetic people as there are people for whom risk of cardiovascular

diseases has nothing to do with cholesterol. Traditionally, diabetic people have been advised

to take cholesterol-lowering drugs due to the link between diabetes and heart diseases. Hence,

giving statin to people with diabetes may not be sufficient to prevent heart damage. Even when

there are no clear symptoms microvascular damage could be possible, leading to heart failure

or even death.

Whenever someone complains of pain in the chest, a standard blood test is done to check the

levels of troponin trickling from heart cells into bloodstream. If such levels are high beyond a

limit, a heart attack is considered to be the cause. Researchers with new findings used 10 times

more sensitive checks to detect even the very low levels of troponin, the protein. This helped

them detect chronic heart damage in people with diabetes. These ultra-sensitive tests are

currently unavailable to heart clinics and general masses.

Since, diabetic people were found to have 2.5 times more elevated levels of troponin than

normal people, it would be wise to test them for minuscule rise in troponin levels in the blood.

Research also found that diabetic people with elevated troponin levels are 6-times more prone

to heart failure and 4-times a heart attack, cardiac arrest. Those with high risk of diabetes were

also found to be at increased risk.

However, before coming to any conclusion and bringing the test to public domain, more

research is needed to be done on the subject. More research is required to decipher exactly

how diabetes and cardiovascular diseases are interlinked.