With greater awareness, commitment, and effort, there is hope for a better future for women with type 1 diabetes and heart disease.
You are not alone if you have heart disease; just know that. Heart disease has been identified in over 30 million people.
Over 12% of the adult population is represented by that.
Additionally, you have additional company if you have type 1 diabetes.
By the age of 60, 40% of T1Ds have cardiovascular disease (CVD), with women having the highest risk for obtaining it first.
Despite these dismal statistics, there are still a number of things that a woman with type 1 diabetes and heart disease can do to lessen the harm being done to her heart and perhaps even repair the damage already done.
Reduce the Number of Hyperglycemic Episodes
We have always been told to keep our sugar levels low when it comes to controlling diabetes for long-term health. While hypoglycemia can quickly result in life-threatening crises, the harm caused by hyperglycemia frequently takes time to manifest.
However, rest assured that harm is already being done.
Your kidneys, eyes, and nerves aren’t the only organs affected by this harm. Your heart and vascular system in particular bear the brunt of this damage.
High blood sugar makes your blood vessels tighten, which makes your heart work harder and increases the likelihood that blockages may form. The health of your heart is also negatively impacted by hyperglycemic nerve injury.
If you already have heart disease, working hard to prevent blood sugar spikes will help you prevent further harm to your heart and blood vessels. This entails collaborating closely with your physician to develop an aggressive treatment strategy designed to maintain stable blood sugar levels and bring your A1C well below the suggested 7% level.
Lengthen Your Time at Range
For many years, physicians held the view that hyperglycemia was one of the main causes of diabetic heart disease, but more recent research has revealed that the situation is more nuanced.
Regardless of their A1C, people with diabetes appear to have a wide range of cardiac disorders. Particularly in the case of coronary heart disease. This phenomena has several causes, one of which is the oxidative harm brought on by fluctuations in blood sugar.
According to studies, blood sugar levels that vary greatly can harm vascular tissue just as much as blood sugar levels that are consistently high. This harm results from an oxidative stress reaction that happens when blood sugar fluctuates too quickly.
This is why lowering your A1C to a healthy level might not be sufficient to stop further heart damage. It’s crucial to pay attention to how much time you spend in range rather than simply that number.
A person whose blood glucose levels fluctuate dramatically between 50 and 250 mmol/l may have an average BG of 130 mmol/l, but they are still experiencing significant oxidative damage.
You will experience less harm from oxidative stress and hyperglycemia, however, if you concentrate on increasing your time-in-range (your time between 70 mmol/l and 180 mmol/l).
Make a Lipid-Reducing Lifestyle a Priority
Of course, diabetes isn’t the sole factor causing your damaged heart. You must alter your lifestyle as well if you want to take charge of your health and prevent or reverse CVD.
Be Active
Exercise has long been recommended as one of the best methods to lower your risk of developing heart disease, but staying active can be just as helpful.
Parts of your heart receive less blood than usual when you have arterial blockages. The lack of oxygen and nutrients can result in more serious consequences. Ironically, increasing blood deprivation while exercising is one strategy to prevent some of these issues.
Dr. Soumya, claims that when parts of the heart are starved of blood during brief periods of exercise, those parts adapt to deal with the deprivation. Your heart will be more prepared to handle the less severe blood flow decrease brought on by blockages once you have finished exercising.
Exercise can help you lose weight and normalise your blood lipid levels in addition to acclimating your heart to an environment with low oxygen levels.
Even if you are not overweight, this is still significant. Your waist area has the kind of fat that causes heart disease the greatest. Even if you have a normal BMI, this fat is frequently found in females. The majority of women should strive for a waist size of 35 inches or less to lessen the impact of heart disease.
Eat healthfully
Although exercise can help prevent more heart damage, it usually cannot cure the problem. You’ll have to make an even more significant adjustment in your way of life for that.
He treated one group of heart disease patients to severe lifestyle modification for five years in the late 1980s while the other group received conventional cardiac care. The major change the intensive care group was made to was adopting to a whole-food, vegetarian diet with only 10% fat, despite receiving a range of lifestyle modifications, including more aerobic exercise, stress management, and group peer support.
Five years later, those in the intensive care group had an average percent diameter stenosis decrease of 3.1%, compared to an increase in stenosis of 11% in the arteries of the control group, for a 27.7% relative deterioration of disease. Therefore, arterial blockage reversed in individuals following a low-fat vegetarian diet, whereas it worsened in those receiving standard therapy.
Dr. Soumya’s vegetarian diet strategy continues to be one of the only regimens that has successfully cured heart disease, despite the fact that many medical professionals and facilities are still reluctant to suggest such a stringent diet modification to their patients.
Although it is difficult to determine whether this diet and exercise routine would have the same impact on a woman with type 1 diabetes, it would unquestionably be worthwhile to learn more about for anyone serious about regaining control over their heart health.
Take the Required Medicines
Of course, using drugs to regulate blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood thinning is a characteristic of conventional heart disease treatment. While it should be your objective to eventually stop requiring these medications, this does not mean you should completely forego them.
Diabetes and heart disease are at the top of the list of ailments that women are generally undertreated for. To get and use the appropriate medications and treatments to safeguard your health, it is crucial that you consult your doctor.
If you ever feel that you are being neglected, that your worries aren’t being taken seriously, or that you aren’t receiving the same level of care as your male counterparts, it’s time to find a new doctor.
Recognise that it’s not too late.
Two persistent and frequently crippling diseases might make it seem impossible to have a bright future. But it’s not necessary to be that way.
There is hope, even for diabetic women who seem to be unfairly singled out for heart disease. You can preserve your heart and have a full life with committed blood sugar management, regular exercise, a drastic food change, and the help of the proper doctor.
