Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes: Two Sides of the Same Coin!

Abstract

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) and type 2 diabetes (T2DM) are rapidly rising around the globe. Empirical researches demonstrated rapid increase in mortality and morbid-ity related to CVD and T2DM. Much of the diabetes-associated morbidity and mortal-ity predominantly reflects its deleterious effect on macrovascular and microvascular diseases. The microvascular complications of T2DM include retinopathy, neuropathy and nephropathy and the macrovascular complications include ischemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease and peripheral vascular diseases. Research indicates that coro-nary heart disease (CHD) is the major cause of mortality in people with T2DM. Herein, this chapter reviews relationship between CVD and T2DM, associated complications and effectiveness of relevant treatment modalities to treat/prevent diabetic macrovasculop-thy. Macrovascular disease occur due to underlying obstructive atherosclerotic changes of major arteries which cause functional and structural abnormalities of blood vessels. The long-term complications can be controlled and prevented by controlling glycemia, maintaining normal lipid profiles, adopting a healthy lifestyle and using pharmacologi-cal interventions. Clinical trials have shown that lifestyle interventions help in preven-tion and reduction of CVD risk, but evidence for long-term CVD outcomes is lacking. A multidisciplinary approach involving patients, health professionals and researchers and governments should be undertaken to reduce the incidence and prevalence of diabetes-related cardiovascular complications.