Cardiovascular Diseases

If you have high blood sugar levels for a period of time, even slightly high, your blood vessels can start to get damaged and this can lead to serious heart complications.

This is because your body can’t use all of this sugar properly, so more of it sticks to your red blood cells and builds up in your blood. This build-up can block and damage the vessels carrying blood to and from your heart, starving the heart of oxygen and nutrients.

So keeping as close as possible to your target HbA1c level will help protect your blood vessels and in turn your heart. Even mildly raised blood sugar levels can, over time, put you more at risk.

Worldwide, cardiovascular diseases are responsible for an estimated 17.5 million deaths each year – around one in every three.[2] The WHO estimates that, by 2030, this death toll will rise to around 24 million.

An unhealthy lifestyle increases the chance of developing cardiovascular diseases. Some of the major risk factors are smoking, obesity, diabetes, and lack of exercise. Cardiovascular diseases will remain a serious health problem in the years to come.