July 12, 2008
A new study finds that after a heart attack, the risk of developing diabetes and pre-diabetes goes up sharply. Heart attack patients are four-and-a-half times more likely to develop the condition than the general population. The August 25, 2007 issue of The Lancet further reported that the patients are fifteen times more likely to develop high blood sugar.
Before this study, the correlation between diabetes and cardiovascular disease was clear in the sense that people with diabetes are two to four times more at risk to get heart disease. They are also five more times at risk to have a stroke.
Dr. Lionel Opie, director of the Hatter Cardiovascular Research Institute of the University of Cape Town, in South Africa said that having a heart attack means that the chance of getting diabetes later is increased. This has been proven by the study that was conducted.
The study led by Dr. Roberto Marchioli from the Laboratory of Clinical Epidemiology of Cardiovascular Disease, Consorzio Mario Negri Sud, in Italy, collected information on 8300 Italian patients who suffered a heart attack.
These patients were not diabetic prior to the heart attack but a third of these patients developed diabetes or had impaired insulin resistance after more than three and a half years after the heart attack. These results showed the correlation between heart attack and high blood glucose.
The risk factors for diabetes are high blood pressure, age, the use of heart medicines like the beta blocker drugs to lower cholesterol levels and diuretics. Being overweight, an unhealthy diet and heavy drinking of alcohol also increase the risk and smoking increases it by 60%.
It is therefore important to change the lifestyle in order to prevent diabetes. Changing the lifestyle means eating healthy. Speaking of healthy eating, a Mediterranean diet can help prevent diabetes so did Marchioli say. This also has been the opinion of some other experts.
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