Health Topic

Diabetic Heart Disease

Diabetes puts you at risk for heart disease. There are different types of diabetic heart disease; Some people have no signs or symptoms.

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Important: This page is general information, not medical advice. It does not recommend or prescribe any treatment. Always consult your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing any medicine.

About Diabetic Heart Disease

Diabetes is a disease in which your blood glucose, or blood sugar, levels are too high. Glucose comes from foods you eat. The cells of your body need glucose for energy. A hormone called insulin helps the glucose get into your cells.

With type 1 diabetes, your body doesn't make insulin. With type 2 diabetes, your body doesn't make or use insulin well. Without enough insulin, glucose builds up in your blood and causes high blood sugar levels.

Diabetic heart disease is a term for heart disease in people who have diabetes. If you have diabetes, you are much more likely to develop heart disease or have a stroke than people who don't have diabetes. And you may start having these problems at a younger age.

Over time, the effects of high blood sugar from diabetes can include damage to the blood vessels and nerves in your heart. This damage increases your chance of developing heart diseases, including:

  • Coronary artery disease (CAD). It happens slowly as a sticky material called plaque builds up in the arteries that supply your heart muscle with blood.
  • Heart failure. With this condition, your heart can't pump enough oxygen-rich blood to meet the needs of your body.
  • Cardiomyopathy. This is a group of diseases in which the heart muscle may become thick or stiff.

Diabetes puts you at serious risk for heart disease. It also makes you more likely to develop other conditions that raise your risk even more, including:

  • High blood pressure
  • High blood levels of LDL "bad" cholesterol
  • High triglycerides (a type of fat in your blood) with low blood levels of HDL "good" cholesterol

Your risk for heart disease is also higher if you

  • Are male
  • Smoke
  • Have obesity
  • Have too much belly fat around your waist, even though you're at a healthy weight: For men, that's a waist more than 40 inches
  • For women, that's a waist more than 35 inches

In the early stages, heart disease usually doesn't have any symptoms. But if your heart disease worsens, you can have symptoms. Your symptoms will depend on the type of heart disease you have. They might include:

  • Shortness of breath
  • Fatigue
  • Dizziness or fainting
  • Arrhythmia (problem with the rate or rhythm of your heartbeat)
  • Swollen feet and ankles
  • Chest pain

It's important to know that people with diabetes may not feel chest pain. That's because diabetes can damage the nerves in your heart. If you have any symptoms that could be heart disease, talk with your health care provider.

To find out if you have diabetic heart disease, your provider will:

  • Ask about your medical history, including your symptoms and other health conditions you may have
  • Ask about your family history, to find out if you have relatives who have or had heart disease
  • Do a physical exam
  • Likely run some tests to help understand your personal risk for heart disease, including: Blood tests to check your cholesterol, triglycerides, and blood sugar levels
  • A blood-pressure check
  • Heart tests, if needed

Depending on your risk level, your provider may send you to a cardiologist (a doctor who specializes in heart diseases) for care. If you do have heart disease, treatment will depend on the type of heart disease you have.

You may be able to prevent heart disease or keep it from getting worse by working with your provider to:

  • Control your blood sugar levels
  • Manage other conditions you may have that can raise your risk for heart disease
  • Take any medicines your provider prescribed
  • Make heart-healthy habits part of your daily life
  • Follow a healthy eating plan for diabetes

It sits within Blood, Heart and Circulation, Endocrine System and Diabetes Mellitus.

The lead U.S. institute for this subject is the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

When to speak to someone. Reading about a topic cannot tell you whether it applies to you. Speak to a doctor or pharmacist if symptoms are severe, sudden, getting worse, or simply not going away — and seek emergency care immediately for chest pain, breathing difficulty, sudden weakness or confusion, or a serious allergic reaction.

Research on Diabetic Heart Disease

319 studies areregistered for this condition on ClinicalTrials.gov, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's public registry. A selection is below — the links go straight to the registry entry, not to a summary of ours.

What a registered study does and does not mean. Registration means a study exists and has been declared publicly. It says nothing about whether the treatment being tested works, is safe, or is available to you. Many studies find no benefit — that is what research is for. Never seek out an experimental treatment on the strength of a registry entry alone.

Research currently under way

Research already completed

Study data from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 2026-07-30. Registry entries are supplied by study sponsors and investigators; ClinicalTrials.gov does not verify their scientific validity. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH.

Where to read more

Rather than paraphrase, we point you to the primary sources. Every link below is to a government health agency, a national institute or a recognised medical body — grouped by what you are trying to find out.

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Diagnosis and Tests

Treatments and Therapies

Prevention and Risk Factors

Living With

Related Issues

Clinical Trials

Medical subject headings

Clinicians and researchers index this subject under Diabetes Mellitus, Heart Diseases, Diabetic Cardiomyopathies. These are the terms to use when searching medical literature.

This page is built from the MedlinePlus health topic record for Diabetic Heart Disease, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health. Information is from MedlinePlus.gov. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and is not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH. Retrieved 30 July 2026.