HEALTH UPDATE: early diabetes leads to early heart disease

The ever-increasing waistlines of young adults in the US have led to more and more cases of type 2 diabetes in young people - and these young people are having far too many heart attacks and strokes, new research suggests.
In the study, young adults - younger than 45 - with type 2 diabetes were many times more likely to have a heart attack than their peers who did not have diabetes. The increased risk was most pronounced in women.
It's no secret that diabetes promotes the development of heart disease, but the increased risk associated with diabetes was much greater in younger adults than in older people, researchers report in the November issue of the journal Diabetes Care.
Diabetes increased the risk of heart attack and stroke in both age groups, but the increased risk was much larger in younger people. People who had been diagnosed before age 45 were 14 times more likely to have a heart attack and 30 times more likely to have a stroke than their non-diabetic peers. In contrast, older people with diabetes were four times more likely than their peers to have a heart attack and three times more likely to have a stroke.