At a recent checkup, your primary care provider diagnosed you with prediabetes. What does that mean for your health—including your risk of heart disease?
There’s a bit of good news about that diagnosis. Prediabetes should be considered a red flag that changes are needed to improve your health. It’s your opportunity to take steps to lower your blood sugar into a healthy range.
By lowering your blood sugar, you’ll also lower your risk of developing heart disease. Keep reading to learn more about the connection between diabetes and your heart.
Making Sense of Prediabetes
First things first, what is prediabetes? It’s exactly what it sounds like!
“Normal” blood sugar is defined as less than 100 mg/dL on a fasting blood glucose test. A blood sugar level between 100 and 125 is categorized as prediabetes, while blood sugar that’s 126 or higher is considered diabetes.
Another test, called an A1C test, can also be used to check blood sugar. This test offers medical providers a look at a person’s average blood sugar level over a three-month period.
The A1C test—also called the hemoglobin A1C test—measures the amount of hemoglobin in the body with glucose attached to it. A normal A1C level is 5.7% or lower, while an A1C level between 5.7 and 6.4% is considered prediabetes. An A1C level of 6.5% or higher is indicative of diabetes.
More than 80 million people in the United States have prediabetes, but if you’re diagnosed with the condition, it doesn’t automatically mean you’ll develop Type 2 diabetes. You can reverse prediabetes with lifestyle changes such as increased physical activity and an improved diet.
How Blood Sugar Affects the Heart
If you’ve ever seen a list of risk factors for heart disease or another heart problem, diabetes was probably on the list. That’s because having elevated blood sugar can damage many parts of the body, including the heart and the circulatory system.
Uncontrolled diabetes can damage the blood vessels and nerves around the heart, increasing the risk of heart disease, including a heart attack or heart failure. Damage to these blood vessels makes them more likely to develop atherosclerosis, which is a buildup of fatty plaque that can limit blood flow.
People who have diabetes are also likely to have other risk factors for heart disease, such as having high blood pressure or high cholesterol, eating an unhealthy diet, smoking, being physically inactive, or being overweight or obese.
These risk factors combine to increase the risk of many forms of heart disease, but those who have diabetes are at a particularly high risk of developing heart failure. Recent research also shows that having prediabetes is a risk factor for heart attack.
What You Can Do to Lower Your Heart Disease Risk
If you’ve been diagnosed with prediabetes, changing your lifestyle habits can help reverse the disease by improving your blood sugar level. Those same lifestyle habits will help you protect your heart, too.
Lower your blood sugar and your heart disease risk by:
- Eating a diet based on fruits and veggies. At meals, fill half your plate with fruits and vegetables, which are packed with antioxidants, minerals, and vitamins. The other half of your plate should be split between a serving of lean protein (chicken, fish, or plant proteins such as beans or tofu) and a serving of whole grains.
- Increasing your intake of fiber. Getting enough fiber in your diet can help moderate blood sugar levels, but many people don’t eat enough on a daily basis. Whole grains, fruits, and veggies are all good sources of fiber.
- Limiting your intake of added sugar, sodium, and saturated fat. You can take a giant step in that direction by avoiding ultra-processed foods when possible. Choose whole foods or foods that contain a minimum of recognizable ingredients on the nutrition label.
- Moving your body more. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity each week for optimal health. That’s slightly more than 20 minutes per day of an exercise like brisk walking. In addition to formal exercise, get up and moving as much as possible throughout the day, especially if your work requires you to sit at a desk.
- Prioritizing sleep. The Sleep Foundation recommends that most adults get between seven and nine hours of sleep each night. If you’re getting more or less sleep, adjust your habits and sleep environment to get the quality sleep you need.
- Snuffing out a smoking habit. If you smoke, it’s time to quit. Smoking damages blood vessels—and the effect isn’t limited to cigarettes, either. Vaping is also a health hazard. Talk with your primary care provider about a smoking cessation plan that will work best for you.
Knowing you have higher-than-normal blood sugar actually gives you a leg up. That’s because many people have high blood sugar, high blood pressure, or high cholesterol but don’t know it because those conditions often cause no noticeable symptoms.
If you’ve been diagnosed with any of these conditions, add “seeing your provider regularly” to your list of healthy habits. Regular checkups with a medical provider can help you keep an eye on these levels and take steps to improve them when needed.
When your heart’s at stake, you can rely on the team of experts at West Tennessee Healthcare Heart and Vascular. We offer a full range of cardiovascular services, including emergency treatment when needed.
