Type 2 diabetes is a significant comorbidity for heart disease, with more than 30% of T2 diabetics also presenting with cardiovascular disease. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States, but the probability of dying from heart disease is 2 – 4 times higher among T2 diabetics.
Why is that? Unmanaged high blood glucose can lead to several negative side effects, but one of the most dangerous is that it causes the blood vessels in your body to harden and narrow. This leads to high blood pressure over time. In fact, nearly 74% of adults with diabetes also have hypertension.
What is cardiometabolic therapy?
Cardiometabolic therapy seeks to bring together the treatment of T2 diabetes with cardiovascular disease to prevent significant complications from heart disease. Our cardiometabolic therapy program offers new classes of treatment that can make a significant impact for T2 diabetics. Clinical trials for these cardiometabolic therapies have shown reductions in risk of stroke and heart attack by 36%.
Our therapeutic goals are to:
- Lower your risks and complications from cardiovascular disease
- Lower your risk of heart attack or stroke
- Lower your blood glucose levels / A1C
- Improve your metabolism
This program is primarily for people suffering from “cardiometabolic syndrome.” As a relatively new field of study, you may suffer from cardiometabolic syndrome and not even know it! In fact, more than 50% of men and more than 70% of women over the age of seventy have cardiometabolic syndrome.
Those with cardiometabolic syndrome may have a combination of these conditions or symptoms:
- High LDL cholesterol or low HDL cholesterol
- High blood pressure
- Type 2 diabetes
- Pre-diabetes
- Insulin resistance
- Central adiposity, or excessive weight gain around the abdominal area.
How does cardiometabolic therapy work?
Step 1: Consultation & expertise
When you schedule an appointment with our cardiometabolic therapy program, you’ll meet with a specialized cardiologist who will evaluate your cardiovascular and metabolic wellness, considering factors like your blood pressure, cholesterol, any signs of edema or swelling, your A1C and your daily lifestyle, diet and more. In that same visit, you’ll also meet with a wellness coach and a dietitian. Together they will evaluate your current diet and exercise regimen and provide a prescription for improvement.
Step 2: Screenings or testing
If you need any additional screenings or diagnostics to get a complete picture of your cardiometabolic health, our team will help you get setup for those procedures. Once we have an accurate understanding of your numbers, you’ll meet with our cardiologist again to adjust your treatment plan.
Step 3: Treatment plan
Your treatment plan may include a variety of therapies that have shown measurable results in improving the risk of heart failure, hospitalization and death related to cardiovascular disease in patients with cardiometabolic syndrome and T2 diabetes.
This plan will likely involve a unique combination of injection or IV-therapies of certain drugs, including ACE inhibitors, SGLT2 inhibitors (a type of statin) and GLP-1 agonists.
Step 4: Continue seeing your doctors
You will continue under the supervision of your regular primary care doctor, endocrinologist and cardiologist as normal, with occasional outpatient appointments and oversight from our cardiometabolic specialists.
How do I get started with the cardiometabolic therapy program?
Patients must meet certain insurance criteria to be a part of the program. This may require certain screenings and prior authorization from their primary care doctor or cardiologist. The Center for Cardiovascular Prevention, Metabolism and Lipids will help walk patients through this process so they can meet the criteria. Contact us today at (770) 219-0960 to learn more about the process.
