How Type 2 Diabetes Puts On The Path To Heart Disease

The key is in the chronically prolonged state of diabetes

We know of Type 2 diabetes (T2D) as an issue with excess glucose in the blood. Glucose is highly reactive and can react with a ton of different biomolecules in the blood - one of the main biomolecules that it hits is the haemoglobin protein, and that’s why diabetics have to contend with their HbA1c markers:

Simply put, the HbA1c marker is an indicator of how much haemoglobin protein has reacted with glucose (and therefore rendered useless in transporting oxygen about in the blood). Higher HbA1c values do indicate poorer oxygen transport capabilities, and a risk of lower limb amputation upon accidental cuts or wounds to the leg region:

But then it doesn’t happen just like that, overnight.

In a healthy human body, insulin is a biochemical that is produced from pancreatic beta cells and signals our cells to take in glucose from the blood at appropriate times. For the most part, each cell is obedient to the signal. Things work smoothly and are humming along. Blood glucose levels are well maintained at healthy levels — a more technical description of the entire process is found in this journal article here.

However, an unhealthy human body can be experiencing this situation known as insulin resistance:

This article indicates that an increased secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) and interleukin 1-beta (IL-1β) are responsible for triggering the insulin resistance problem.

It is also possible that increased IL-1β levels also interfere with the beta cell ability to produce insulin. In fact, obesity can contribute further to insulin resistance as fat cells are known to aid in the production of IL-1β. This increased IL-1β production attracts the attention of the immune system’s macrophage cells:

This initial event may then lead to IL-1β-induced chemokines, resulting in the recruitment of macrophages. Subsequently, macrophage influx and activation within fat tissue may act as a prominent source of IL-1β secretion, triggering insulin resistance.

When the macrophages are involved in this activity (which is a vicious amplification loop where IL-1β is continuously being ramped up), their main role of “detecting, engulfing and destroying pathogens and apoptotic cells” is reduced, mainly because they are busy doing this other work of producing IL-1β.

Not only would the macrophages ramp up IL-1β production, they would also swarm oxidised low density lipoprotein (LDL) particles. This continuous feedback loop eventually results in the formation of foam cells - the precursor to atherosclerotic plaque formation:

Therefore, it is easy to see how one with prolonged Type 2 diabetes can proceed on into an ugly situation of heart disease, especially when the underlying inflammatory factors have not been dealt with.

That is definitely something that we do have to watch out for, because the doctors don’t necessarily make these links apparent to us.

But we do need to know, again, that the functioning of our immune system is key for preventing the development of these health issues - and again, dealing with the inflammatory signalling is much easier said than done!

Do feel free to refer to 10 Nutrients That Support A Healthy Heart to see how we can better manage our diet to support a healthy heart!

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