“Diabetics have a significantly higher risk of suffering a heart attack. A research team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now identified one of the causes: Diabetes is associated with the loss of small blood vessels around the heart. This in turn affects the entire cardiac muscle. A genetic therapy that promotes the growth of blood vessels may offer a remedy.”
Michel, Having spent a number of years working with Cardiologists, I would say the number one cause for CVD in any population is genetics. The physicians that I worked with at some world renowned hospitals would speculate that genetics was an 80% factor in their estimations. I would guess that diabetes, especially uncontrolled diabetes, but maybe just diabetes in general puts one at a higher risk of developing CVD at an earlier age and therefore contributes to more deaths because the other factors i.e. cancer and other ailments don’t have as much time to manifest themselves in the population. Certainly, anything you can do to reduce your CVD risks are a good thing, but honestly they are generally the same things all diabetics should be striving for. With that said, using medical strategies to promote vascular health, in addition to the medical management of high blood pressure and other CVD risk factors are proven and well founded. It will be interesting to hear how this work turns out when it progresses past the pig model.
