In addition to maintaining a healthy, well-balanced diet and exercising regularly, it’s important to keep track of your hemoglobin A1c, blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Why?
“Diabetes affects the blood vessels and increases inflammation and plaque formation in the arteries so much so that we place diabetics in the same risk category as people who have suffered one heart attack,” Dr. Oyeyipo explains. “The best way to combat the increased cardiovascular risk in diabetes is strict control of the hemoglobin A1c, the blood pressure and the cholesterol levels.”
She adds, “Good blood pressure readings in non-diabetics is less than 140/90mmhg. For diabetics, we want the blood pressure to be <130/80mmhg. Good glycemic control in diabetics is an HgAic of less than seven. Good total cholesterol control in diabetics would be less than 200mg/dl and LDL (bad cholesterol) should be less than 100mg/dl.”
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