Administering injectable and oral diabetic medications among cardiac patients

Hypertension is the silent killer of our times. Over thirty million Americans -one eleventh of the entire country’s population -suffer from this condition. It is rightly termed the silent killer because not only does it not show obvious symptoms; it works silently against the system when it is present. Neglected hypertension is a sure cause for strokes and heart attacks.

There is a highly undesirable, but strong and almost irrefutable link between cardiovascular disease (CVD) and diabetes. CVD is a class of diseases that involves the heart or blood vessels. The prime reason for this close connection is the fact that diabetes is known to be a killer that loosens and weakens the blood vessels in the heart. Uncontrolled glucose levels affect the tissues that damage the heart cells. Diabetic patients have increased levels of low grades of inflammation of the arterial lining. This is considered the first step towards blood level changes that lead to heart disease. Diabetics are much more prone to microvascular and macrovascular heart complications compared to nondiabetics.

While this is the most direct manifestation of diabetes for heart conditions; other mechanisms that go beyond raised blood glucose levels also matter. Factors such as smoking and hypertension contribute greatly to the weakening of the cardiac blood vessels.

The following statistics serve as proof of this strong link between diabetes and heart disease:

More than nine in ten patients have a strong link between these factors and heart disease
Studies at the Joslin Diabetes Center further corroborated the findings of The Framingham Heart Study, and showed a two to threefold increase in the incidence of heart disease in diabetic patients as compared with nondiabetic patients in the same age group
The survival rate of diabetic patients from heart disease is half that of nondiabetic patients

Diabetes was the 7^th leading cause of death in the US in 2015. The American Diabetes Association and Centers for Disease Control estimated that year that Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality for diabetics. Treating diabetes is thus of vital importance for people with hypertension and other cardiac conditions.

Complete learning on how to treat hypertension among diabetics

The extremely important learning of the ways by which to administer oral and injectable diabetes medication among patients with heart conditions will be imparted at a webinar that MentorHealth, a leading provider of professional trainings for all the areas of healthcare, is organizing.

Daphne Smith Marsh, who is a Doctor of Pharmacy and Certified Diabetes Educator and is currently a Clinical Pharmacist and Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois College of Pharmacy in Chicago; will be the speaker at this webinar. Please register for this webinar.

Ways of administering new oral options

The essence of this highly valuable webinar is an understanding of how to administer the several newer oral options for diabetes therapy, such as Dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors and Sodium glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors, and injectable agents such as Glucagon-Like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists.

Various cardiovascular outcome trials evaluating oral and injectable diabetes medications have recently been published. Dr. Marsh will discuss these. She will explain cardiovascular disease and review cardiovascular outcome trial data that provides more information regarding possible benefits and risks of using oral and injectable diabetes medications.

Healthcare professionals who deal with diabetes and cardiac conditions, such as Physicians, Diabetes Educators, Nurses and Pharmacists will gain immense benefits from this learning from Dr. Marsh. This session will cover the following areas: