Diabetes and Hypertension

High blood pressure (hypertension) can lead to and make worse many complications of diabetes, including diabetic eye disease and kidney disease. Most people with diabetes develop high blood pressure during their life.

Having diabetes makes high blood pressure and other heart and circulation problems more likely because diabetes damages arteries and makes them targets for hardening (atherosclerosis). Atherosclerosis can cause high blood pressure, which if not treated, can lead to blood vessel damage, stroke, heart failure, heart attack, or kidney failure.

How Are Diabetes and Hypertension Related?

Diabetes and high blood pressure tend to occur together because they share certain physiological traits –- that is, the effects caused by each disease tend to make the other disease more likely to occur. In the case of diabetes and high blood pressure, these effects include:

· Increased Fluid Volume -- diabetes increases the total amount of fluid in the body, which tends to raise blood pressure

· Increased Arterial Stiffness -- diabetes can decrease the ability of the blood vessels to stretch, increasing average blood pressure

· Impaired Insulin Handling -- changes in the way the body produces and handles insulin can directly cause increases in blood pressure

Though these common biological traits partially explain why diabetes and high blood pressure are such a common pair, in many cases, the two diseases are likely to occur together simply because they share a common set of risk factors. Some important shared risk factors are:

· Body Mass -- Being overweight significantly increases the risk of both diabetes and high blood pressure.

· Diet -- High fat diets rich in salt and processed sugars are known to contribute to the development of organ problems that can lead to both diabetes and high blood pressure

· Activity Level -- A low level of physical activity makes insulin less effective (which can lead to diabetes) and can contribute to the development of stiff blood vessels, increasing the risk of high blood pressure.

Preventive strategies for both high blood pressure and diabetes usually focus on these specific risk factors.