The Comprehensive Obesity Treatment Center at Vald’Hebron Hospital also noted that patients with diabetes are almost twice as likely to have heart disease or a stroke.
MADRID, Nov. 14 (EUROPA PRESS).- The endocrinologist and coordinator of the Comprehensive Obesity Treatment Center at the Vald’Hebron Hospital, Andreea Ciudin, has stated that the type 2 diabetes multiplies cardiovascular risk and is behind up to 40 percent of cases of chronic kidney disease.
“In our environment, diabetes is the leading cause of chronic kidney disease and can be present in between 30 and 40 percent of people with type 2 diabetes; it also increases the risk of heart failure, which can affect a relevant proportion of these patients throughout their lives,” explained Ciudin within the framework of World Diabetes Day, which was celebrated on Friday.
In addition, the expert has highlighted that people with diabetes are almost twice as likely to have heart disease or a stroke as adults without diabetes. The doctor emphasizes the need to consider differences by sex: “In women with diabetes, the risk of acute myocardial infarction or angina is greater than 40 percent compared to men with diabetes, largely because they have worse cardiovascular risk profiles, with a greater tendency toward obesity, hypertension and hypercholesterolemia.”
The endocrine indicates that the cardiorenal connection of diabetes is aggravated because its initial phases pass without symptoms. Both type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease are silent pathologies; By the time the patient notices something, there is often already established damage. “That’s why we insist on early detection: periodic blood and urine tests to monitor glucose, kidney function and cardiovascular risk assessment,” adds the doctor.
Prevent from the root
At the root of the problem, one of the factors that can influence the most is obesity, understood as excess and/or dysfunction of body fat, not only as high weight, and that is why evaluating body composition and measuring waist circumference is decisive; a waist/height ratio >0.5 is associated with greater cardiometabolic risk even with non-high BMI.
This dysfunctional visceral adiposity promotes insulin resistance, hypertension and renal overload, contributing to complications in the cardio-renal-metabolic axis. Among the consequences linked to sustained hyperglycemia are retinopathy, nephropathy and peripheral neuropathy, as well as major cardiovascular events, while metabolic liver or fatty liver has become the main cause of liver transplantation in the developed world.
“Type 2 diabetes can go into metabolic remission if we address its root; we are not talking about a definitive cure, because if ‘the adipocyte gets angry’ it can return, but we are talking about reversing its course in many cases,” the doctor clarifies. “By treating obesity and adipose tissue dysfunction well, we can prevent up to 80 percent of new cases of type 2 diabetes,” he concludes.
Awareness: A necessity in diabetes
Most diagnoses of type 2 diabetes are discovered in routine tests, hence the importance of periodic check-ups and monitoring parameters such as glucose and waist circumference.
“Diabetes is a priority and our commitment is firm: promote awareness, support patients and collaborate with the health system to strengthen screening, education and monitoring of cardiac, renal and metabolic complications,” says AstraZeneca Director of Corporate Affairs and Market Access, Marta Moreno.
He also adds that they will continue, “promoting initiatives that help prevent the disease and improve health outcomes from early identification to comprehensive management.”
On the occasion of World Diabetes Day, Ciudin, together with AstraZeneca, has participated in a special episode of the ‘Vidas Contadas’ podcast, presented by Enric Sánchez, in which he shares guidelines on how to eat better, what the causes of diabetes are and how to avoid it, with practical and understandable messages to promote a sustainable change in habits.
