Diabetes and the chronic complications - Heart Disease

Previously I had written about the acute complications of diabetes mellitus and today I will start a series of blog posts throwing light from my experiences about the chronic or long term complications of the disorder. Chronic complications and its therapy is very close to my life as a wellness coach it has been my subject even when I was doing my post graduate research work on the diabetes. So I will begin with a long term complication thats close to every one's heart - Heart Disease.

While we all know the cause & effects of heart disease and also why and how it occurs, you need some clarity over how it all starts in a diabetic condition of the body. Well diabetes as I mentioned in earlier posts too isn't the killer its an open invitation to all the diseases that can occur in the body. So what does diabetes aid in to call upon its dear friend heart disease to come and visit for a longish holiday ? We're about to find out. You remember I had written about stress in diabetes previously, well that is the biggest crack in the pandora box. During the progression of diabetes over the years the metabolic stress causes oxidation of the biomolecules by means of free radicals. Free radicals or molecules with extra electron or oxygen molecule with extra electron act as stress producing agents in the blood and in the tissues. How do they do that? Well for starters lets take a peek into our blood stream where along with the usual molecules that constitute the blood (proteins, cells, platelets, gases, fatty acids, cholesterol, antibodies etc) there are molecules that are desperate to react freely with the other constituents of blood. The reason they are so desperate to react or as we chemically put it are highly reactive agents, is because they carry that extra electron which is not necessary for them. In order to rid them of the burden of carrying that electron they seek molecules to accept this electron so as to be oxidized. This reactivity is then passed on to whoever gets that electron leading to a series of reactions amongst molecules either of the same biochemical function or different. This reactivity passing on the electron like playing passing the parcel leads to high reactivity of the all those molecules in the way and accumulates sheer chaos in the blood stream of that part of the body. Chaotic situation leads to stress, stress leads to fatigue after a prolonged time and fatigue leads to collapsing of the body part.

Same is true for development of heart disease in diabetes. After a prolonged uncontrolled hyperglycemia or blood sugar levels there is enough stress accumulation due to the oxidation reactions in the blood stream. This stress leads to the highly reactive oxidated - LDL (bad cholesterol) from the LDL in the blood to create plaques on the walls of the coronary arteries. How does it do that ? It simply damages the wall by reacting to it since its only purpose in life is cause severe reactivity with anything in its way thanks to that oxidized electron it has received. So the sooner the plaque is formed there comes a boat load of other constituents like serum protein, antibodies, platelets, more fatty acids like triglycerols, VLDLs, etc to an extent where these all begin depositing themselves into the dented artery wall. Now the deposited debri of the blood on the wall hardens over a period of time casing the lumen of the artery (passage for blood to flow) to contrict. Remember we are talking about the Coronary Artery here (the one that supplies oxygenated blood to the heart). Which only means that if the heart which pumps oxygenated blood into the body is itself falling short of the same supply how will it carry out its primary function? Its like your fuel provider hasn't had its share of fuel so that its efficient to provide fuel to others. When the arterial wall hardens the supply of oxygenated blood suffers slowly and steadily to an almost trickle. As this condition progresses the high sugar levels in the blood do not help the situation as the body is perennially exhausted and needs oxygen and fuel constantly to combat the burden of burning subsidiary fuel for energy. In addition to that the heart is exhausted to an extent where at one point it starts regurgitating blood in the opposite direction causing fluid accumulation in the body, lack of enough oxygen, no glucose for fuel, and only toxin filled blood to live by. This gives birth to another common chronic complication of diabetes - Chronic Kidney Failure, but that is another post. When the heart has given up the condition is called Congestive Cardiac Failure (CCF). It is so named as the heart is congested with blood and is not physically any blood from its left ventricle into the body. The entire blood circulation is congested with no fresh blood coming in and water accumulation taking place.

There are however many stages of heart disease where you can stop this final stage to occur and sometimes the heart gives up due to excessive sugar levels and stress and succumbs to cardiac arrest instantly. But if you trap the condition at stages of Hypertension, Hypercholestroleamia, or even the first heart attack you can still save the heart from arrest. I will enlist and explain the stages of heart disease upto CCF in my next post, till then if you have any memories or questions regarding the topic please comment or write to me may be we can find a solution for you or your loved one.

Wish you wellness.

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