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People who have diabetes are at a higher risk of heart diseases. This is a known fact. This is because high blood sugar damages your blood vessels and the nerves that control your heart and blood vessels. The risk goes up significantly if your sugar levels are not controlled. Your immunity is another thing that suffers if you have diabetes. With low immunity, your risk of infections also goes up. Now, a new study from Folkhalsan Research Centre (FRC), in Finland, have found that bacterial infections may elevate the risk of coronary heart disease in individuals with type 1 diabetes. Researchers suspect this may be due to the use of antibiotics to treat the infection.
For the findings, published in the Journal of Internal Medicine, the research team wanted to investigate the association between bacterial infections and the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) in type 1 diabetes. They were successfully able to study the association between antibiotic purchases, endotoxemia and incident coronary heart disease in one of the largest cohorts of individuals with type 1 diabetes.
As diabetic nephropathy has a substantial impact on both the risk of CVD as well as the risk of infections, researchers further studied this association at different stages of diabetic nephropathy. The findings showed that among 3,781 individuals with type 1 diabetes, 370 developed coronary heart disease over an average follow-up of 13.7 years. Antibiotic purchases, reflecting bacterial infections in outpatient care, were significant risk factors for coronary heart disease, with a 21 per cent increased risk for each annual antibiotic purchase, according to the researchers.
A high blood level of bacterial lipopolysaccharides (large molecules derived from the outer layer of gram-negative bacteria) was also a risk factor for coronary heart disease. In broader terms, the present study demonstrates how infections associate with the development of late diabetic complications and perhaps even more importantly, how infections associate with the development of coronary heart disease, as the latter relationship has been disputed during recent years.
Interestingly, in this study, this association to incident coronary heart disease was seen specifically with antibiotic purchases, making the potential pathophysiologic mechanisms behind this finding intriguing and warranting further studies. The researchers noted that more studies are needed to further elucidate the pathophysiologic mechanisms behind this association.
You can significantly bring down your risk of heart disease by making sure that you control your blood sugar levels. To do so, eat right and exercise regularly. You also need to avoid unnecessary stress and anxiety and sleep well every night. Daily exercise will strengthen your heart muscles and improve heart health. Boost your immunity by eating right. This will bring down your risk of infections. Avoid smoking and get rid of excess weight. Obesity in itself is a risk factor for heart disease. In people with diabetes, this risk goes up by many times.
(With inputs from IANS)