Reducing Your Risk of Complications Controlling blood glucose, blood pressure, and cholesterol can help reduce the risk of long-term complications of diabetes. Talk to your health care provider to learn more, and keep track of your blood pressure and cholesterol levels with the charts on page 65.
Heart Disease and Stroke Diabetes is itself a risk factor for heart disease and stroke. Heart attack and stroke affect people with diabetes more than twice as often as people without diabetes. In fact, two out of three people with diabetes die from heart disease or stroke, which are together called cardiovascular disease. Clogged blood vessels can lead to heart attack, stroke, and other problems.
Heart Disease Coronary artery disease, sometimes called hardening of the arteries, is caused by narrowing or blocking of the blood vessels that go to your heart. Your blood carries oxygen and other needed materials to your heart. If the blood vessels to your heart become partially or totally blocked by fatty deposits, then the blood supply is reduced or cut off. Then a heart attack, sometimes called a myocardial infarction or MI, can occur.
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