Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes / Ray D. Strand, M.D.

Eighty percent of diabetic patients today will die prematurely from a cardiovascular event like a heart attack, stroke, or ruptured aneurysm. This was true in 1970 and is true today. In spite of all our medication and present treatments for diabetes, we have not been able to change this horrible statistic. Now it is true that we are able to decrease the risk of what is referred to as microvascular disease like diabetic retinopathy and neuropathy. However, we have not been able to decrease the risk of major cardiovascular disease. Why is this happening?

As you have been learning in prior Health Nuggets, our arteries begin aging much faster than they should as soon as you develop insulin resistance. It may be 10 to 15 years before you actually develop diabetes. Clinical trials have shown that the day we actually diagnose a patient in our office as being diabetic that 60% of them already have major cardiovascular disease. Now that they are diabetic, their arteries will actually begin to age even faster. Physicians are behind the eight ball and are really intervening with their traditional treatments too late. The answer to this dilemma is to begin treatment earlier before the patient actually becomes diabetic.



RAY D. STRAND, M.D.
Specialist in Nutritional Medicine