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High Blood Pressure and Diabetes
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High blood pressure
(Hypertension) is a significant risk factor for the development and worsening of many complications
of diabetes Mellitus, including diabetic eye disease heart, brain and kidney disease. It affects up
to 60% of individuals with diabetes Mellitus.
Having diabetes Mellitus
increases your risk of developing High blood pressure (Hypertension) and other cardiovascular
problems, because diabetes If you have diabetes chances of developing high blood pressure also
increase. Atherosclerosis can cause High blood pressure (Hypertension), which if not managed,
can cause arteries damage heart failure, Myocardial infarction, Angina, kidney failure, stroke.
In fact, a person with diabetes and high blood pressure is four times as likely to develop heart
disease than someone who does not have either of the conditions
Why is it important to treat high blood
pressure?
High blood pressure increases the risk of coronary heart disease
(which leads to heart attack) and stroke, especially when it's present with other risk factors,
such as diabetes. When a person has high blood pressure and diabetes, a common combination, their
risk for cardiovascular disease doubles.
What Should Blood Pressure Be if You Have
diabetes Mellitus?
In general your blood pressure should not go above 130/80. The first
number is the "systolic pressure" or the pressure in the arteries when your heart beats and fills
the arteries with blood. The second number is the "diastolic pressure" or the pressure in the
arteries when your heart relaxes.
If you want to prevent diabetes complications, then you should
control your blood pressure strictly. Having a normal blood pressure is as significant to managing
diabetes Mellitus as having good control of your blood sugars when it comes to preventing diabetes
Mellitus complications.
What Are the Symptoms of High blood pressure
(Hypertension)?
In most cases high blood
pressure (Hypertension) has no symptoms. That's why it's so significant to have your blood
pressure checked on a regular basis (during all visits with your doctor) and to follow your
doctor's recommendations on home blood pressure measurement.
How Is High blood pressure (Hypertension) Treated
in Diabetic patients?
Treatment includes a change in lifestyle risk factors where these can
be improved - losing weight if you are overweight, regular physical activity, a healthy diet,
cutting back if you drink a lot of alcohol, stopping smoking, and a low salt intake. If needed,
medication can lower blood pressure. ACE (angiotensin converting enzyme) inhibitors and ARBs are a
group of medications that are often used to treat high blood pressure in individuals with diabetes
Mellitus. Although other High blood pressure (Hypertension) drugs are available, ACE inhibitors
have been shown to not only to be a useful drug to manage High blood pressure (Hypertension), but
it has been shown to prevent or delay the progression of kidney disease in individuals with
diabetes Mellitus as these drugs prevent excreation of protein in urine. ARBs -- These medications
keep the blood vessels open and relaxed to help lower blood pressure. Like ACE inhibitors, ARBs
protect your kidneys.
Keep in mind that some blood
pressure drugs may adversely affect your blood sugar level. Blood pressure drugs can also cause
impotence like beta blockers. Talk with your doctor about the side effects of prescribed drugs.
Some blood pressures drugs also seem to work better on certain populations of individuals.
Diuretics for example seem to be particularly useful in the elderly and may also be beneficial
in individuals with hypertension that is salt sensitive as is frequently seen in African
Americans. Diuretics are also used to treat blood pressure in diabetic patients specially
elderly individuals. As adequate control of blood pressure usually requires more than one drug,
most health care providers use ACE inhibitors first then add other anti-hypertension drugs like
diuretics.
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