Having high sugar levels in the blood could damage the walls of a person’s blood vessels.
In that way, the blood vessels will be more likely to have fatty deposits. In case the fatty deposits rupture and cause a blood clot, that might lead to stroke or heart attack.
The researchers from the University of Leads tracked around 700,000 people who were admitted to a hospital with a heart attack. These people had been admitted between January 2003 and June 2013.
Of all these people, around 121,000 actually had diabetes. The researchers eliminated the effects of gender, age, illnesses, and differences in the medical treatment received. After doing that they found that there are stark differences when it comes to the survival rates.
More About This Study
According to this study, having diabetes elevates the risk of dying from a heart attack and its effects by 50 %. In fact, people who had the chronic illness were around 56 % more likely to have passed away if they had a STEMI, i.e., ST-elevation myocardial infarction heart attack.
In this type of heart attack, the coronary artery completely blocks. This is in comparison to those who do not have the condition. These people were around 39 % more likely to have passed away if they had an NSTEMI i.e., non-ST elevation myocardial infarction.
In this type of heart attack, the artery partially blocks. This is in comparison to those who do not have the disease. The Associate Professor and Consultant Cardiologist in School of Medicine, Dr. Chris Gale, the lead researcher talks about this topic.
According to him, these results offer robust evidence which notes that diabetes is a notable long-term population burden in patients who already had a heart attack.
Gale added that the next step in the research is to discover what in this disease elevates the chance of death due to a heart attack.
Also the founder of the study, Dr. Mike Knapton talks about this topic. He says that after a heart attack, people are less likely to survive if they have a chronic illness. But he is not sure whether this is due to the illness or maybe to other conditions that are usually seen in these people.
The figures show that there is a need for more research in order to improve treatments for those who live with diabetes and heart disease. There is a need for bigger support in order to help them lower their chance of future stroke or heart disease.
How to Lower the Risk
Controlling blood sugar levels efficiently can lower the chance of obtaining cardiovascular disease. It is important to do this while scientists tackle this problem.
Proper management means taking drugs as prescribed, eating healthy, and staying active regularly.
