Managing your blood glucose, or blood sugar, as well as your blood pressure and cholesterol are crucial to preventing heart disease and stroke. You need to work with your physician or other health care professional in order to do this.

When your health care professional says your blood pressure is "140 over 95" or your cholesterol is "150 mg/dL" it is important to know what these numbers mean. Click on the links below to find out the common numbers you should know about:

Know Your Numbers: What's Your Blood Sugar?

Having diabetes puts you at greater risk of dying from some form of heart or blood-vessel disease. Keeping your blood sugar levels, also referred to as glucose levels, as close to normal as possible can help reduce your risk greatly.

Women with diabetes develop heart disease more often than other women, and their heart disease is more severe. Women under age 50 with diabetes are more vulnerable to heart attacks and strokes than those without diabetes in their age group because diabetes seems to cancel estrogen's protective effects on women's hearts prior to menopause. Women with diabetes are at even greater risk for developing heart disease after menopause.

Know Your Numbers
The best test for diabetes is one that measures fasting plasma glucose (FPG). This blood test is usually done in the morning, after an overnight fast, at a health care professional's office or lab.

The normal, nondiabetic range for blood glucose is from 70 to 110 mg/dL. A level over 126 mg/dL usually means diabetes (except for newborns and some pregnant women). A fasting blood glucose test of 110 mg/dL or greater, but less than 126 mg/dL, indicates impaired fasting glucose, now recognized as a condition (called pre-diabetes) that typically precedes the development of diabetes.

Another blood test, the so-called "casual" plasma glucose test, can be taken any time of day. Diabetes is indicated if your glucose level is greater than or equal to 200 mg/dL and you have symptoms. An oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), which takes three hours and involves two blood samples, is also available; its value lies in measuring how glucose levels change in response to a high glucose load.

A positive reading on any of these tests should be followed up with a second test on a different day to confirm the diagnosis. A positive finger-stick test should still be followed with two of the venous tests to confirm a diagnosis.

What You Can Do
The good news is that women who have slightly elevated blood sugar levels can be protected from developing heart disease by losing weight, getting plenty of exercise and taking medication, if necessary, to lower their blood sugar levels.

Women with diabetes who maintain lower blood glucose, blood pressure and cholesterol levels can lower their risk of cardiovascular disease. To reduce your risk, follow the "ABC" approach recommended by the National Diabetes Education Program, National Institute of Health and the American Diabetes Association.

Visit the Diabetes topic at this Web site to learn more about the "ABC" approach and the treatment and prevention of diabetes.

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Create Date: 2/9/05 Date Last Updated: 2/9/05