PROFESSOR ERROL Morrison, President of the Diabetes Association of Jamaica, has said that a person with diabetes were more likely to die from a heart attack, than someone with heart disease but does not have diabetes.
According to Professor Morrison diabetes is a serious underlying problem that triggers heart problems and approximately one-third of all cases of heart attacks in Jamaica were related to the blood sugar disease.
He said that 10 to 15 years of poor control of diabetes could cause damage to blood vessels.
"As sugar rises in the blood, the blood gets thick and cannot flow properly; hence it sticks to the walls of the blood vessels and will gradually occlude," he explained.
He noted that when this occurs, tissues die and affects areas that need very good blood supply, such as the heart. "With a diabetic situation you will get very poor circulation in the heart which can result in the inability of the heart to function," he said.
Professor Morrison explained further that, because of the blockage of the blood vessels, the heart has to pump harder so high blood pressure also developed. "The pump is working against this greater pressure and as a result, the heart may get big from the continued overwork to push this blood through this narrow blood vessel, so you will get heart disease as well," he pointed out.
The University Professor stated that often, the muscles of the heart increase as they suffer from lack of oxygen and blood flow, resulting in pain in the heart.
Importantly, he said, with diabetes, a heart attack could be silent. "It does not cause pain as the pain fibres are also being damaged by the diabetic process and are not sensitive to the pain process," he pointed out.
Professor Morrison said the common approach to reducing the risk of heart disease in a diabetic person was weight control, noting that obesity was the single most important factor leading to diabetes development, diabetes aggravation and heart disease.
There is a particular kind of obesity that is distributed around the waist and information from the International Obesity Task Force in London, England, states that any waist measurement in excess of 36 inches is prone to heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure.
In an interview with the Jamaica Information Service, Professor Morrison stated that, "what we want to do is to look at the common factor of overweight. Overweight predisposes diabetes by its association with a developing resistance to one's own body's ability to respond to the insulin released to the body after eating or drinking.
"Usually, because fat is laid down in these inner tissues and prevents the access of insulin...this would contribute to further problems. In addition, the overweight by itself, results in the increased narrowing of the blood vessels, causing an increase in the work of the heart and resulting in heart disease. So diabetes will do it, overweight will do it, high blood pressure will do it and there are many people who have all three," he stated.
Professor Morrison said the single most important thing to protect against heart disease and related problems was weight control.
Jamaica is observing Diabetes Week from November 10 to 16.
