Diabetes And Hypertension
Diabetes is caused by the body’s inability to produce or use insulin, a hormone that regulates blood glucose levels.
Meanwhile, hypertension (or high blood pressure) is a common condition in which the force of blood on the walls of your arteries is often too high. Arteries are the blood vessels that carry oxygen and nutrients in the blood away from your heart to supply your tissues.
High blood pressure and high blood sugar together may harm your body more than either one alone. Both high blood pressure and high blood sugar levels affect your blood vessels.
Diabetes is a major cause of severe atherosclerosis along with high blood pressure. Atherosclerosis is a disease of the arteries.
Atherosclerosis occurs gradually over many years that results in a buildup of cholesterol and other substances in the vessels causing the vessels to close. This can lead to stroke, the second-leading cause of death in the world and a leading cause of disability.
Elevated blood pressure may be associated with heart failure, kidney and eye disease.
Kidney scarring is particularly common in patients with diabetes and hypertension, which make them at a higher risk for chronic kidney disease.
About half of all Americans have hypertension and nearly half have diabetes or pre-diabetes.
So, it’s important to get both conditions into normal ranges
Normal blood pressure: 120/80 mmHg
Prehypertension: 120-139/ 80-89 mmHg
Stage 1 hypertension: 140-159/ 90-99 mmHg
Stage 2 hypertension: ≥ 160/ ≥ 100 mmHg