With around 77 million people living with diabetes, India is called the Diabetic capital of the world.
What is more worrying is that people with diabetes are at a higher risk of developing cardiovascular
diseases as high glucose levelscan damage blood vessels and the nerves controlling the heart.
1 As per studies,one of the leading causes of death among diabetes patients is cardiovascular diseases. This
makes diabetes management even more crucial in keeping CVDs and especially heart failure in check.
Heart Failure is the leading cause of mortality and repeat hospitalizations amongst all CVDs.Experts
have even observed that patients reach out to their cardiologist at an advanced stage of the disease,
which is when the heart has already suffered a considerable damage.
Contrary to timely adherence in
diabetes patient,heart failure patients have compliance issues, and they tend todiscontinue the course
of treatment once they see someimprovement in the overall symptoms.
However, to manage heart failure and diabetes,early diagnosis and timely treatment is the key.
It will
help to curb the growing incidence of CVDs and such comorbidities, reducing the associated
hospitalization, mortality and morbidity.
Dr.Chinmoy Mazumdar, Cardiologist, Hayat Hospital, Guwahati commented, “Diabetic patients
tend to develop heart disease at a younger age than people without diabetes. Diabetes is a major
risk factor for heart failure. In our clinical observation, we see around 30-40% of heart failure
patients with a pre-existing diabetic condition. Additionally,
diabetics often fail to identify the
symptoms of Heart Failure as the symptoms might get subdued owing to associated comorbidities
like neuropathy. This can lead to delayed diagnosis and patients might reach the doctor at an
advanced stage of heart failure,
in a condition where they need to be hospitalized. Therefore,
managing risk factors like diabetes and identifying the symptoms of heart failure early is imperative
for timely diagnosis and prompt treatment.”Some of the common symptoms of this condition
are – swelling in the ankles,
legs and abdomen;
constant tiredness and fatigue; shortness of breath;
and a need for elevated pillows while sleeping, to
breathe properly.
Diabetic patient should not
confuse or ignore these symptoms as they may lead
to dire consequences.
Heart Failure patients with diabetes have increased
hospitalization rates compared to patients without
diabetes2
Past clinical observations have also shown that the treatment of diabetes tends to mask the
symptoms of heart diseases.
Treatment in both Diabetes and Heart Failure must be combined with a healthy lifestyle and dieta.
Did you know?
➢ People with Type-2 diabetes are 2.5
times more likely to develop congestive
heart failure than those without the
condition
➢ Approx. 25% of patients with chronic
heart failure have been found to have
Type-2 diabete
