After the death of a sudden heart attack and cardiac arrest, experts call for an increase in awareness about heart health, especially for people with comorbidity such as diabetes. This is because, they may be vulnerable to silent heart attacks, experts show. Diabetes is a condition that causes high blood glucose levels due to the body’s inability to produce insulin or use it adequately to regulate glucose. “Those who suffer from diabetes can show signs such as increased thirst and urination, increased hunger, unexpected weight changes, persistent wounds, numbness or tingling in the hands or feet, fatigue, and even blurred vision,” said Dr. Niranjan Nayak, Pathology Consultant, Apollo Diagnostic.
A silent heart attack is an attack that occurs without any symptoms, or with symptoms that are not recognized. One may not know they have a heart attack until they receive a diagnosis after weeks or months, according to Medical News Today. In fact, According to the American Heart Association (AHA), a silent heart attack contributed around 1,70,000 from around 8,05,000 annual heart attacks.What is the relationship with diabetes? It is estimated that as high as 50 to 60 percent of diabetics do develop heart disease, said Dr. Ruchit Shah, an intervention cardiologist, Masina Hospital, Mumbai, added that diabetics with high blood sugar tend to develop blocks.
“Block means a slow barrier in the bloodstream of the coronary arteries, brain arteries, and kidneys. All diabetes continuum causes obstruction of blood flow to the entire body called ‘atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease’. This usually appears together and including diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, peripheral blood vessel disease, and the problem of retina, “he explained. The set agreed by Dr. Amith Bhushan Sharma, Director and Cardiology of Interventional Head of Unit, Paras Hospital, Gurugram and said that over time, high blood sugar levels can damage blood vessels and nerves that control the heart. “High blood pressure increases blood strength through the arteries and can damage the arterial walls,” Dr. Sharma told Indianexpress.com.
Sharing that the usual presentation time (symptoms of heart attacks) is usually at least five to 10 years after the diagnosis of type 2 diabetes patients, Dr. Shah said: “Diabetes patients experience slow death from nerve endings, which causes the cause of pain. As a result, diabetics who develop heart attacks may not be present with typical chest pain symptoms. Conversely they can come with symptoms of fatigue, fatigue, shortness of breath, lethargy, sweating, loss of consciousness, work, and back pain, etc. So, this is an atypical presentation from a heart attack. ” According to AHA research, women who live with diabetes have a risk of increasing a stationary heart attack. But research from 2021 showed that the number of silent heart attack incidents was “higher among men than women”. This study continues to observe that women may risk higher than complications than men.
The 2013 review of cases with diabetes and silent ischemia or the risk of heart attacks that eventually died, noting that still myocardial infarction (SMI) is a common event and seems to be present with an increase in frequency in patients with diabetes, possibly as a result of heart autonomous dysfunction. This notes that doctors who treat patients with diabetes must be aware of the possibility of silent ischemia.