They trigger the disease.
A new study reveals that individuals with both type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease face an elevated risk for heart issues, impacting their cardiovascular health decades earlier than those without these conditions. According to findings presented at the American Heart Association’s conference in Chicago, men with both conditions may experience heart health complications up to 28 years sooner, while women may encounter these problems 26 years earlier.
The study’s lead author, Vaishnavi Krishnan, a researcher from Northwestern University and medical student at Boston University School of Medicine, explained that this research highlights how combined risk factors significantly heighten cardiovascular disease risk. For those with slightly elevated blood pressure, glucose, or impaired kidney function who haven’t yet developed hypertension, diabetes, or kidney disease, their risk may still go unrecognized until it leads to serious heart issues.
Utilizing health survey data from 2011 to 2020, the researchers created heart risk profiles specifically for individuals diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, chronic kidney disease, or both. These conditions are part of the cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic syndrome (CKM) framework, which emphasizes the collective health risks from interconnected issues like heart disease, kidney disease, diabetes, and obesity.
The study found that chronic kidney disease alone increases heart disease risk about eight years earlier than in people with healthy kidneys. Similarly, type 2 diabetes alone accelerates heart disease risk by approximately ten years. However, when combined, the two conditions exacerbate each other, dramatically increasing cardiovascular risk. For instance, men and women with both conditions may face heightened heart risks as early as ages 35 and 42, respectively—decades earlier than their healthier peers.
Researcher Dr. Sadiya Khan of Northwestern School of Medicine emphasized that, while these findings offer crucial insights, they are based on simulated population data and should be viewed as an initial step toward understanding this risk model. The findings are considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal, providing a foundation for future research in this critical area.
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