People with diabetes are at a higher risk of getting heart disease, according to the American Heart Association (AHA). Even if you have your blood sugar levels under control, having diabetes increases your risk of heart disease.
Having diabetes makes it two to four times more likely that you will also have heart disease, according to the AHA, which includes diabetes as one of the heart disease risk factor that you can control.
Another risk factor of heart disease that you can control is obesity. Central obesity – which means having extra weight around your waist – increases your risk of heart disease, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This is because stomach fat increases LDL cholesterol, which is bad cholesterol that builds up inside the walls of your blood vessels.
The better you can control risk factors like diabetes and obesity, the more you can reduce your risk of getting heart disease.