Why is understanding your risk of diabetes important for your heart?
Whether or not you have diabetes, high glucose (sugar) levels in your blood are a risk factor for heart disease. Having diabetes doubles the risk of developing heart disease.7
Knowing your risk can help you make healthy choices now that will reduce your risk or even prevent you from developing diabetes.8
What factors increase your diabetes risk?
Some of the important risk factors for diabetes include9:
- Your age
- Family history of diabetes
- Being overweight, especially around your abdomen
- High blood pressure
- High cholesterol
Visit www.shoppersdrugmart.ca/diabetes to learn more about prevention, management and living well with Diabetes.
7. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse (NDIC). http://diabetes.niddk.nih.gov/dm/pubs/stroke/#connection, accessed 14 November 2011.
8. Public Health Agency of Canada. The Canadian Diabetes Risk Questionnaire. http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/cd-mc/diabetes-diabete/canrisk/canrisk-eng.php, accessed 22 November 2012.
9. Canadian Diabetes Association. Diabetes and You- Are you At Risk? http://www.diabetes.ca/diabetes-and-you/what/at-risk/, accessed 22 November 2012.