Diabetes cause heart to ‘age’ by 15 years

High risk
People with diabetes fell into high risk category for cardiovascular disease (CVD) 15 years earlier than those without the condition.

Be careful
You can reduce your own risk of developing diabetes by maintaining a healthy weight, exercising regularly and controlling your diet.

A person with diabetes is at risk of developing cardiovascular disease 15 years earlier than those without the condition, the result of the new study indicate.

Adults with diabetes have long been known to be at an increased risk of heart disease. A team of researchers at the Canadian Institute for Clinical Evaluation Sciences set out to examine the age at which people with diabetes develop a high risk of cardiovascular disease.

They identified all adults living in Ontario in 1994 with diabetes (almost 380,000) and all of those without the condition (over nine million). Individuals were than followed up in 2000, to see if they had developed any signs of cardiovascular disease.

The study found that a person with diabetes moves to the high risk category (for heart disease) around 15 years earlier than a person without diabetes.

In fact, men with diabetes were found to move to the high risk heart category at the age of 41, while women are considered high risk at the age of 47. In the general population, this move to the high risk category usually happens around 15 years later.

The study also found that young adults aged 20 to 39; with diabetes have 12 to 40 time’s higher rates of coronary heart disease, compared to young adults who do not have diabetes.

“Middle aged and older individuals with diabetes appear, on average, to be at high risk for cardiovascular disease, thus aggressive risk eradication strategies are warranted in this group of patients. However for diabetes patients who are under 40, our data suggests that risk reduction efforts should be individualized to the patients specific needs, based on their risk profile”, said lead researcher, Dr Gillian Booth.

Agencies- Toronto.