Controlling your blood sugar is one of the best things for women’s heart health, along with maintaining healthy blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

In many patients with diabetes who have no symptoms, diabetes, particularly when poorly controlled, is already harming their blood vessels and leading to hardening of the arteries, a precursor to heart disease. People may not even realize that they have diabetes until the disease progresses to the point where they have a heart attack.

That’s why it’s important to be aware of your blood glucose numbers, along with monitoring your overall weight and body fat.

If Your Blood Sugar Is High

Losing weight is the best way to get high blood sugar under control. Food is energy, so if the calories you consume don’t get burned off, fat accumulates in your body, particularly in the abdomen, which can cause diabetes. Two effective tactics for helping lose extra pounds and prevent diabetes:

• Limiting your carbohydrate and sugar intake.
• Doing heart-pumping, heavy-breathing aerobic exercise.

If you’re just getting started with diet changes and exercise, work with your doctor to come up with a combined plan that’s best for your needs. Be sure to get your blood glucose levels monitored as recommended.

Treatment can bring type 2 (or adult-onset) diabetes under control before you need insulin, if it is combined with weight loss and changes in lifestyle. This is especially true in those whose glucose levels are in the mild range. Glucose levels that are above normal can be considered a wake-up call.

Women with Diabetes: Heart Disease Risk

Anyone with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes faces an elevated risk of heart attack and other cardiovascular problems, but women who are younger than 60 — a group often thought of as having a lower danger of heart problems — actually have up to four times the risk of heart disease when they have type 2 diabetes, recent Johns Hopkins research shows.

For this reason, women with high blood glucose levels should take the condition particularly seriously. Adults with poorly controlled diabetes are never too young to have a heart attack or stroke, the experts say.

Important Notice: This article was originally published at www.hopkinsmedicine.org where all credits are due.

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