Type 2 Diabetes, Obesity and Congestive Heart Failure!

Type 2 diabetes and obesity are known risk factors for heart disease. Although studies may be boring for us to read about, there is no doubt they have value in many areas of our lives. Now heart failure is not what any of us want… this study published in the journal Diabetologia, December 2010 looked at the hearts of young people with Type 2 diabetes and obesity and found changes that could lead to heart failure.

Researchers at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Division of Endocrinology, in Ohio, United States, looked at the structures of the heart of:

obese adolescents without Type 2 diabetes, and

obese adolescents with Type 2 diabetes

Echocardiography: Echocardiography which takes images of the heart showed the obese volunteers with and without diabetes, had abnormal heart growth. Their hearts were beating harder to pump blood through the arteries, and the heart’s chambers were not filling well between beats. This condition takes place when the walls of the heart have grown inward, making the chambers of the heart too small to fill adequately.

Adults with heart walls that have grown too thick are subject to heart failure.

It was concluded obese adolescents with and without Type 2 diabetes are likely to be at high risk for heart failure as they progress to adulthood.

What is Congestive Heart Failure? Congestive heart failure takes place when the heart is unable to pump blood through the body efficiently enough to meet the body’s demands for oxygen and nutrients. Blood normally flows into the right atrium from the body, proceeds to the right ventricle, and from there goes to the lungs, where it gets rid of carbon dioxide and takes on oxygen. From the lungs the oxygenated blood flows to the left atrium and then to the left ventricle. The left ventricle is the most powerful part of the heart. It is the chamber that pumps oxygenated blood out to the rest of the body.

When the left ventricle’s walls grow inward its inner space becomes too small. When that happens the left ventricle is unable to receive and pump out blood fast enough to meet the body’s demands. Blood begins to back up in the lungs, where it interferes with respirations. Fluid then must be removed by means of diuretics to enable the person with congestive heart failure to breathe freely. Congestive heart failure can be deadly, so the best idea would be to prevent it happening.

Prevention is Better Than Cure: Healthy young children are highly active, and keeping up at least some rigorous activity should be a lifetime goal. As well, healthy adults need to perform activity that makes their heart beat faster, increase respirations and sweat from two to three times per week.

Getting the family out walking, swimming, bicycle riding, or performing some other physical activity can prolong everyone’s life. Developing Type 2 diabetes at a young age might seem very daunting but making changes to diet and an exercise regime will help with weight loss and lower blood sugar levels. Losing weight could mean putting off treatment with insulin for many years and help to avoid heart disease.