WESLACO – Diabetes can also cause other health-related problems such as heart attacks.

Experts say the risk for a heart attack increases with diabetes. Anyone who has the disease is at the same risk of suffering heart disease from thereon.

“Any diabetic should consider himself or herself at high risk of a future heart attack or stroke,” says Dr. Dileep Menon, an interventional cardiologist at the McAllen Heart Clinic and the South Texas Health System.

He says the majority of his patients who have heart disease also have diabetes, especially those he treats in the Rio Grande Valley.

“If you have heart disease down here, you inevitably are a diabetic. I would say 70 percent to 80 percent of my patient population would be diabetics,” he explains.

Heart attacks are caused due to blockages building up in the arteries in the heart. Dr. Menon says buildups of cholesterol happen over time but diabetes can exaggerate it.

Whether you have Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, you’re still at risk, he says.

“It’s basically the amount, the duration that they are diabetic. Otherwise, the risk between Type 1 and Type 2 are going to be the same,” he says.

Dr. Menon adds diabetic patients are urged to get checked out so they can be screened for heart disease.