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Accurate heart attack warning signs are often missing in type II diabetes
According to health experts, around 300,000 people in Germany suffer a heart attack each year. In many cases, certain warning signs indicate an imminent infarction. In diabetics, however, this is often not the case. You should therefore rather check your risk of a heart attack to the doctor.
A heart attack often announces itself
Every year around 300,000 people in Germany suffer a heart attack. Although many people are hit by a heart attack, according to health experts from "clear sky", but often there are already warning signals. Quickly detecting a heart attack can be life-saving. Alarm signs include episodes of chest pain, sometimes with left arm or lower jaw radiating off after a few minutes. In people with diabetes, however, such warning signals are often missing.
A heart attack is often indicated by certain symptoms, such as chest pain. In diabetics, however, such warning signals are often missing. (Image: Bits and Splits / fotolia.com) Around seven million Germans suffer from diabetes
As reported by the German Heart Foundation in a recent communication, about seven million people in Germany have diabetes mellitus (diabetes mellitus) known. Although diabetics are often afraid of the typical late complications of diabetes such as blindness, kidney failure or amputation, they underestimate the increased risk of heart attack and stroke.
And although it is precisely these patients who can often meet, because the risk of fatal heart attacks is greatly increased in diabetes, British scientists recently reported. Especially women make diabetes more susceptible to a heart attack.
Diabetics often lack warning signs
According to the foundation, diabetic patients suffering from a heart attack usually lack the severe chest pain typical of the infarction, and thus the decisive warning sign for their life-threatening situation.
"Especially long-term diabetics often have a very weak sense of pain for typical heart attack warning symptoms such as chest pain, so that for these patients, the heart attack is often the first symptom of a long existing calcification of the coronary arteries," said Prof. Dr. med. med. Dr. H. c. Diethelm Tschöpe from the Scientific Advisory Board of the German Heart Foundation.
In diabetics, the long-standing hypoglycaemia therefore leads to disturbance of the nervous system, so that they do not feel the typical chest pain as a result of circulatory disorder of the heart muscle.
Have risk factors checked
According to Prof. Tschöpe, diabetes patients, but also patients with coronary heart disease (CHD), should have their family doctor check the heart attack risk factors such as high blood pressure, elevated blood sugar, high cholesterol and triglyceride levels and overweight.
"Diabetes and heart problems are a dangerous combination: Because diabetes and CHD patients often only know about their own disease for years, but none of the other, they are very vulnerable to infarction - even though they may have been receiving specialist treatment for years ", Says the expert.
Allow blood glucose levels to be measured regularly
For example, if a diabetic complains of frequent respiratory distress, it may be indicative of heart failure as a result of untreated CHD and undetected high blood pressure. Patients with CHD or other heart disease are more likely to have diabetes than 60 percent. "Cardiac patients with CHD, heart failure or atrial fibrillation should therefore check their blood glucose (fasting blood sugar) with their doctor at regular intervals and insist on this blood test."
Such blood sugar tests are easy to perform by the family doctor or internists and diabetologists. If the diagnosis is diabetes, immediate consistent treatment to normalize blood glucose levels is important so that the high blood sugar does not damage the blood vessels and thus the oxygen supply to the heart and the whole organism are not affected. (Ad)