Diabetes & hypertension & lifestyle, oh my!
Diabetes, whether type I or type II, increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, such as heart attack and stroke.
High blood pressure, a common chronic medical condition often without symptoms, increases the risk of developing cardiovascular disease, again, such as heart attack and stroke.
These seem like two seperate chronic medical conditions, so why am I talking about them?
Well, people living with type II diabetes are much more likely to develop high blood pressure and experience a cardiovascular event (like a stroke or heart attack) earlier in life than those without type II diabetes.
Both elevated blood sugar and high blood pressure can damage the liner lining of our blood vessels (called endothelium) by increasing the production of reactive oxygen species. The resulting injuries lead to a pro-inflammatory environment and decline in our endothelial health. Dysfunction and damage to the inner lining of our blood vessels tips the scales towards the development of arterial plaque and cardiovascular disease.
But fret not there is hope. The American Journal of Preventive Medicine published an article in July 2022 with 451,157 participants that aimed to understand the association of diabetes and high blood pressure in adults and the impact of a healthy lifestyle.
I love research like this because it focuses on areas that we have direct control over, such as food, sleep, and physical activity. Additionally, these lifestyle habits are drug free, so there is no prescription needed to produce meaningful improvements in our health.
Multiple professional organizations like Diabetes Canada, the American Diabetes Association, and the European Association for the Study of Diabetes recommend lifestyle intervention for the management of cardiovascular disease in people living with diabetes. But which lifestyle intervention yields the best results to help reduce blood pressure - weight loss, physical activity, smoking status, sleep, and alcohol consumption. Of note, diet was not included in this study.
To clarify study authors Dr. Pedro L. Valenzuela PhD and colleagues analyzed their data and concluded that “people with diabetes only, the optimal combination of BMI and lifestyle habits … was associated with a considerably lower prevalence of hypertension.” The specific combination of lifestyle factors that were associated with a 71% lower risk of having high blood pressure were healthy BMI and regular physical activity.
If you are looking for guidance on medication-free options to help improve your cardiovascular and metabolic health schedule a free 15 minute consultation with Dr. Brandon Testa, ND.