Did you know that if you have diabetes you have a greater chance of dying from heart disease or stroke and it doesn't make any difference if you are a woman or a man? One reason is high blood levels of sugar make the walls of your blood vessels thicker and cause them to lose their elasticity, which in turn makes it harder for blood to pass through.

Type 1 diabetes is know as juvenile-onset diabetes and usually affects children and young adults and is genetically-linked. The following are some conditions that are typically found in people with type 2 diabetes, which is know as adult-onset diabetes, heart disease and stroke.

Depression: Depression doubles the risk of a person getting diabetes and after being diagnosed with diabetes a person will go through major lifestyle changes which will cause them to be more depressed. Diet changes and taking medicines are among the things that cause them to be more depressed.

Obesity: Obesity is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and strongly associated with insulin resistance. Loosing weight has been shown to improve heart-health along with diabetes.

Inactivity: Lack of exercise is another major risk factor. Along with loosing weight, exercise has helped to reduce blood pressure and the risk of heart attack and stroke.

Hypertension: High blood pressure has long been recognized as a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke. If you have both high blood and diabetes your risk for heart disease doubles.

A symptom of diabetes is the skin of a diabetic person becomes very dry and flaky due to excessive loss of water, leading to dehydration which could result in a coma. Also it takes a long time for sores or cuts to heal. Diabetes is usually accompanied by sudden weight loss. There are many things that could be or may not be a symptom of diabetes. If you think you might have diabetes, go to your doctor right away to find out and it never hurts to have your heart checked out at the same time.

About the author – Rita Tate is the webmaster and editor for the website My Pal's Place, http://www.mypalsplace.com/ [Re-print is permitted if a clickable link to http://www.mypalsplace.com/ is included with the article.