- Heart disease and stroke are the leading causes of death for people with type 2 diabetes.
- Know Diabetes by Heart is an initiative to educate people about the connection between diabetes and heart health.
- There are ways to manage type 2 diabetes and improve heart health.
In the beginning of 2016, Lupe Barraza, woke up every day with tingling in her hands and feet.
“I couldn’t make a fist it was so painful,” Barraza told Healthline.
She was also losing hair, and gained 70 pounds within a few years. During this time, she was living under stress with her abusive second husband in Houston, Texas.
“My environment got dangerous being away from my family in Dallas. … My stress levels were [through] the roof,” Barraza said.
By spring, she summoned the courage to see a doctor. Barraza learned her glucose levels were in the upper 300s, and that she had type 2 diabetes.
“After being diagnosed, I tried to change my diet and to walk. I did lose about 20 pounds, but it seemed threatening to my husband — feeling good about myself and health — and I reverted back to old habits. My self-esteem wasn’t good,” Barraza said.
The up-and-down battle with her health was familiar to Barraza. In 2009, she learned she was prediabetic.
“I knew it was imminent because my father is the youngest of 13 and about 80 percent of them struggled with type 2 diabetes, and the majority of them passed away from type 2 and heart disease. [My dad] was diagnosed when he was in his 40s,” Barraza said.
The American Diabetes Association states that people who have an immediate family member with type 2 diabetes have a greater risk for developing type 2 diabetes themselves due to genetic factors, as well as lifestyle choices, such as exercise, eating habits, and stress.
Knowing this, Barraza worked hard to break from her family history. In 2009, she began running and changing her diet. Between 2010 and 2012, she built up stamina to run 10 marathons and two ultramarathons.
“I was in [the] best shape of my life. I had gone back to school and finished my bachelor’s, master’s, and CPA,” Barraza said. “But unfortunately the strains of my [first] marriage didn’t survive. In the spring of 2012, I was divorced and lost myself.”
Source: healthline