Less than 5 % of the people living with diabetes know about the heart risk that entails and that neglect on their cardiovascular health causes them to be more likely to die from a heart attack than due to diabetic complications, specialists said.
Prior to World Heart Day, which is commemorated every September 29, Dr. Pedro Gutiérrez Fajardo indicated that people living with diabetes have a risk between two and six times higher of having a cardiovascular event than a person who does not suffer from thiscondition.
"Despite this, less than 5 % of those who live with diabetes are aware of this cardiovascular risk," the expert warned.
The president of the National Association of Cardiologists of Mexico said that according to data from the World Federation of the Heart, this ignorance may be due to various factors.
Some of these, he pointed out, are a lack of awareness of health care professionals, in addition to a perception of diabetes treatment focused on glucose (glycucentric) control or blood sugar, and lackof communication between specialists.
Dr. Marco Antonio Alcocer, president of the Mexican Society of Cardiology, indicated that diabetes causes macro and microvascular damage, which "subtracts the patient for years and quality of life."
"They can have a decrease in their life forecast of up to 10 years," he said.
Alcocer indicated that the purely gluco-centric approach has clinical impact on the reduction of microvascular events, such as retinopathy, renal insufficiency or diabetic foot, but little or no impact on macrovascular complications, such as heart attacks, strokes and renal damage.
That is why it emphasized one of the most important challenges in the integral treatment of diabetes is to prevent patients from reaching a cardiovascular event.
"The proper management of this condition goes beyond glycemic control and now we seek to reduce the risk of vascular complications at the cardiac, cerebral and renal level," he said.
Dr. Gutiérrez Fajardo stressed that a high percentage of patients living with type 2 diabetes mellitus is at risk of cardiovascular affectation and having a fatal outcome in the world and in Mexico.
He added that more awareness of the impact of type 2 diabetes mellitus in cardiovascular health is required and recognized the increased risk "of up to three times more of suffering an acute myocardial infarction or a cerebral vascular event."
Not giving enough importance to cardiovascular damage caused by diabetes can become critical if 58 % of deaths of patients with type 2 diabetes are considered to be cardiovascular.
In addition, on average, a 50 -year -old individual with diabetes and without a history of cardiovascular disease will die 6 years before compared to someone without diabetes, experts determined.
Currently, in Latin America there are 62 million people with diabetes, while in Mexico it is estimated that 14 million people are affected by this condition, but if the trend is expected to reach 25 million in 2045.