How to prevent and treat cardiovascular complications of diabetes

  With the increasing understanding of the disease, there has been a fundamental shift in the concept of type 2 diabetes treatment from simple glycemic control to a multifactorial integrated prevention and treatment strategy centered on the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular events, which has reduced the prevalence of type 2 diabetes and the incidence of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events.  The comprehensive treatment of type 2 diabetes includes diabetes education, diet control, rational exercise, medication and self-monitoring. Diabetes educationDiabetes education is treatment education. It includes not only basic information education, such as diet, exercise, weight control, blood glucose monitoring, and medication use, but also basic eye and foot care, as well as control of risk factors associated with diabetic macroangiopathy and psychological adjustment. The American Diabetes Association recommends that diabetes education be divided into 3 areas: assessment of individual related information needs, advancement of individualized education, and evaluation of phase effects. Diabetes education is the foundation and key to successful diabetes treatment.  Dietary control Dietary control is also the most basic measure and is the key to treating diabetes. Dietary control can help blood glucose and urine sugar to be as close to normal as possible and can play a role in preventing or delaying the onset or development of complications. In the process of diet, first of all, change the bad habits, such as smoking and alcohol addiction to quit smoking and alcohol, and change the diet structure if there is an unreasonable diet structure; secondly, according to the different conditions of patients, scientifically formulate the diet treatment card which is compatible with them, record the daily diet and blood sugar situation, and reasonably adjust the nutrition ratio of three meals. The general ratio is 55% of total calories from carbohydrates, 20% of total calories from protein, 25% of total calories from fat, and limit cholesterol intake to less than 300g. The daily distribution of three meals can be 1/5, 2/5, 2/5 or 1/3, 1/3, 1/3, because the ideal dietary control of diabetic patients is to eat less and more meals, but also according to the four meals into 1/7, 2/7, 2/7, 2/7, 2/7, so as to achieve the purpose of treatment, but also to meet the normal physiological needs.  The right amount of exercise can improve the muscle’s ability to use sugar, lower blood sugar, reduce the need for insulin, and also make the cholesterol in the arterial walls of diabetic patients move out more and deposit less, effectively prevent or slow down the development of atherosclerosis and hypertension. Blindly, regardless of the choice of light or moderate exercise, should follow three steps: (1) warm-up exercise 5-10 minutes of preparatory activities before exercise; (2) exercise exercise process, pay attention to the first 5-10 minutes to do light exercise, gradually can increase the intensity according to the situation; (3) finishing exercise in the exercise to end before doing about 10 minutes of recovery exercise, especially the stronger exercise can not immediately stop . At the same time, diabetic patients should also pay attention to exercise should not be fasting exercise and exercise immediately after meals, fasting exercise prone to hypoglycemia, exercise immediately after meals affect the digestion and absorption of food, physical condition should be suspended, hot weather with enough water, towels, cold attention to prevent colds. Wear appropriate clothing and footwear, check the feet after exercise, and deal with any abnormalities in a timely manner. If discomfort occurs during exercise, such as hunger, cold sweat, palpitations, rapid heartbeat, hypoglycemic reaction should be considered, timely replenishment of sugar; if there is chest tightness, chest pain or leg pain, you should immediately stop exercise, and as far as possible to the nearby hospital consultation, examination, so that timely treatment.  Drug therapy hypoglycemic therapy:Traditional oral hypoglycemic drugs include: (1) drugs to reduce the source of blood sugar such as α-monoglycosidase inhibitors: acarbose, etc.; biguanides: metformin, etc.; (2) insulin promoters such as sulfonylureas: glimepiride; clofibric acid class Repaglinide, etc.; (3) insulin sensitizers such as thiazolidinediones: rosiglitazone, etc.; when oral drugs alone gradually lose control of blood sugar, you can Oral hypoglycemic drugs combined with starting insulin, glucagon-like polypeptide 1 analogues (GLP-1) or DPP-IV inhibitors can be selected for treatment. The development process of future diabetes treatment drugs should not only take into full consideration the glucose-lowering effect, but also minimize the risk of hypoglycemia and reduce weight gain, so that diabetic patients can obtain better disease management and quality of life.  In addition to glucose-lowering therapy, antihypertensive therapy plays an important role in intervening in the occurrence and development of macrovascular complications in diabetes. Blood pressure in diabetic patients should be controlled at <130/80 mmHg, and strict control of blood glucose and blood pressure can reduce mortality and disability in diabetic patients. The antihypertensive treatment should also take into account the protection of target organs and the benefits of complications, and avoid drug side effects. The common antihypertensive drugs include diuretics, beta blockers, ACEI, ARB, CCB. lipid-lowering therapy is also particularly important in the prevention and treatment of macrovascular complications in diabetes. in addition to strengthening patient education, reasonable lifestyle, low-fat diet; at the same time, the intervention and adjustment of dyslipidemia should be carried out with reasonable selection of statins, betablockers and other drugs. In addition, antioxidant, anticoagulant and anti-inflammatory therapy; aspirin therapy should be routinely used in diabetic patients without contraindications, especially for intermediate and high-risk diabetic patients, taking small doses of aspirin antiplatelet therapy has been elevated to primary prevention measures.  Self-monitoring regularly monitors blood glucose and lipids, measures blood pressure, and adjusts medications in a timely manner; the main methods of examining and evaluating diabetic vascular lesions are vascular ultrasound and invasive angiography. Among them, vascular ultrasound is non-invasive, inexpensive and reproducible as practical. By accurately examining the measurement of carotid intima-medial thickness (IMT) or plaque, thus effectively evaluating atherosclerosis, it has some application value for early prevention and diagnosis of type 2 diabetic vascular lesions.  In conclusion, in order to minimize the harm of diabetes, effectively control the occurrence and development of diabetic macrovascular complications, and improve the survival quality of diabetic patients, it is necessary to change the traditional concept of treatment with the goal of controlling blood glucose, and on the basis of strict control of blood glucose, through active diabetes education, dietary control, strengthening exercise, controlling blood pressure, correcting dyslipidemia, improving insulin resistance and The improvement of bad lifestyle such as smoking cessation and alcohol cessation, etc., comprehensively control the risk factors of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases in diabetic patients, and at the same time achieve early diagnosis and early intervention, so that patients can benefit for a lifetime.