Looking at diabetes and coronary disease
There are medical complications and there are research complications. Sometimes there are both in the same set of circumstances.
That's what researchers from the Warwick Medical School in England contemplated in their recent study looking at oxidative stress in the blood. Oxidative stress damages your cells. It is linked with many diseases, including Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and atherosclerosis. The researchers studied three groups: patients with coronary disease, those with type 2 diabetes and a healthy control group.
Previous data found high levels of oxidative stress for those with coronary heart disease and those with type 2 diabetes. But this new study discovered varying stress levels among those with coronary heart disease only, while all the type 2 diabetes patients showed high indicators of oxidative stress. This led researchers to wonder if the observations of increased oxidative stress in individuals with heart disease might reflect an underlying irregularity in glucose metabolism that indicates diabetes. This suggests that oxidative stress could be used as a marker, then.
The body produces natural substances that can damage cells and tissue, the pro-oxidants and free radicals. These can be worsened by, for instance, smoking or drugs. The body also has an antioxidant system of enzymes that counters the damage from pro-oxidants. But some conditions — such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes — knock this system out of alignment and interfere with the antioxidant protection.
If you have heart disease, have your blood sugar measured and monitored, since this research indicates you may be at risk.
