Prevention | Understanding complications
Cut Your Risk in Half
Worried about complications? Here's how you can dramatically reduce your risk.
Everyone who has diabetes worries about getting complications: nerve, kidney and eye problems, as well as heart attack and stroke. However, there’s evidence that you can cut your risk of developing these complications by 50 percent. The study, called “Multifactorial Intervention and Cardiovascular Disease in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes,” is a mouthful. Fortunately for you, the actual plan is not complicated—but you must stick with it. Even doing even simple things consistently can be a challenge. Here’s how to make it as easy as possible.
Know your “ABC” targets
To cut your risk of developing complications, you must target your diabetes ABCs: A1C, Blood pressure and Cholesterol levels. Here are the goals, according to the American Diabetes Association:
- A1C: less than 7 percent
- Blood pressure: less than 130/80 mmHg
- Low-density lipoprotein (LDL or bad cholesterol): less than 100 mg/dL
- High-density lipoprotein (HDL or good cholesterol): more than 40 mg/dL for men, 50 mg/dL for women
In the study, participants with Type 2 diabetes and microalbuminuria who received intensive treatment designed to help them reach their ABC targets had only half as many heart attacks and strokes as patients in the study who received less intensive conventional treatment. This study also suggests that the ABC approach may be just as effective in protecting people from diabetes complications affecting their vision, nerves and kidney function as it is against cardiovascular complications.
Get help to get results
Study participants met frequently over about eight years with physicians, dietitians and others. The treatment plan was demanding and despite their best efforts, not all of the patients reached their targets. If everyone in the study had reached their targets, the reduction in complications would have been even more impressive!
If you want to achieve these goals you’ll need all the support you can get. Talk to your health care provider about your personal diabetes targets and what steps you can take to reach them. Ask for a referral to a diabetes educator if you feel you need more help with some aspect of your daily diabetes care routine.
Are you ready?
Your health care providers can help but reaching your goal is largely determined by the things you do each day. You are the one who has to eat carefully, stay active, take your medication as prescribed and monitor your blood glucose regularly. And that’s a lot.
Are the benefits worth it? That’s a question only you can answer. No amount of encouragement or pushing from your doctor, family or friends will help you reach optimal health goals if you haven’t made the commitment. Whether you need to form a new habit, break an old one, revise your grocery-shopping list or schedule a daily check-in with yourself, you’re the captain of your diabetes care team!
Actions you can take to help you reach your goals!
Here’s what people in this eight-year study did to achieve these tremendous risk reductions:
- They ate 5-6 servings of vegetables every day.
- They limited the fat in their diet to less than 30 percent of total daily calories and saturated fat to less than 10 percent.
- They walked at least five times a week for at least 30 minutes each time.
- They quit smoking.
- They took a low-dose aspirin each day. Even though the study used 150 mg, most experts now recommend an 81 mg aspirin.
- They took medication to control blood pressure, even if it was in the normal range.
- They took medication that lowers LDL cholesterol and might raise HDL cholesterol.
So there you have it. The steps are clear and the results are well proven. The rest is up to you. With some help and dedication, you can cut your risk in half!
