Within four months of being diagnosed with diabetes in 1988 I moved down to Florida. I immediately set out to find a good endocrinologist. I found a doctor who was the head of the local chapter of the American Diabetes Assn. and highly respected.

           One of the reasons I sought the best, most knowledgeable physician available was because I was determined to become well-informed about the complications of diabetes so I could avoid them. I wanted to know what the consequences of not controlling the disease adequately were.

 

I told him I’d already met a diabetic pharmacist who had his leg amputated and wanted to know what else could happen. I implored him to speak frankly and to pull no punches. I was a big boy and could take it.

 

My reasoning was that by knowing the risks, I would take better care of myself. Rather than frighten me, knowledge would spur me on to fight harder.

 

This doctor looked at me as if no one had ever asked him that question. He hemmed and hawed and tried to dodge the question. I persisted and asked him again. His eyes widened and then he changed the subject.

 

 

Right then and there, I knew this wasn’t the doctor for me. After all, someone who can’t bring himself to be honest in the beginning cannot be your best advisor later on when your life is on the line. I don’t know what his problem was, but it was my body and I had every right to know how to prevent or heal complications.

I’ll do my best to give you the tools to prevent or heal cardiovascular complications. First, we’ll discuss the risk factors and then we’ll explore what both conventional and alternative medicine has to offer you. This is down-to-earth real world healing information! As an ornery, cussed, never-give-up fighter, you have the will-power and resolve to implement this information! This can make you whole and strong.

 

As you read these figures, please understand that these conditions don’t have to happen to you. You can fight and win!

 

First, you should know that more diabetics die from heart disease and stroke than any other complication. Depending on the researcher, cardiovascular disease accounts for from 65% to 80% of all diabetic deaths. In fact, diabetics have a risk of heart attack more than 400 percent above that of non-diabetics.

 

Adults with diabetes are two to four times more likely to have heart disease or suffer a stroke than people without diabetes. This includes several forms of heart and vascular disease, including; coronary artery disease, heart attack and sudden death. This is the big, bad wolf of diabetes complications.

 

With this condition, your heart muscle cells don’t receive enough blood, oxygen and nutrients to perform their duties. They’re being starved because the blood vessels that supply the heart are partially or completely blocked!

 

How did this happen? The most cited reason is hardening of the arteries or atherosclerosis. Here’s where cholesterol and other material build up in the walls of the arteries and veins over a long period of time. There is damage to the internal lining of the major blood vessels.

 

Conditions contributing to this include: diabetes, high blood pressure, aging, high triglycerides, obesity and smoking. To correct this injury your body speeds special cells called macrophages to the area to repair the damage.

However, the substances that the macrophages produce to repair the injury further block the vessels. After several attempts at repair, deposits of cholesterol and scar tissue accumulate and block the blood vessel.

It you’ve had uncontrolled diabetes for more than 15 years you are 10 times more likely to develop coronary artery disease than non-diabetics. Conventional medicine also considers that the higher your blood cholesterol, the higher your risk. In a later section we’ll explore new research that contends that this is not so.

 

As the blockages increase...