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Diabetes, heart disease, and stroke: what raises the risk, the warning signs, the ABCs, and the medicines
For anyone with diabetes who wants to protect their heart, anyone with diabetes told their heart risk is high, and the people who care for them. It passes on, by name, what the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK, part of the NIH) says: the link between diabetes and the heart, what raises the risk, the warning signs of a heart attack and a stroke, how doctors check your heart, the medicines to ask about, and your diabetes ABCs. It builds the words to say, and prints a card for your notes. Nothing is saved.
A word with a dotted line under it, like this, opens its official definition, quoted from a U.S. government glossary.
Right now
- Chest pain or pressure, pain in the arms, back, neck or jaw, shortness of breath, sweating, or nausea? Call 911 right away (NIDDK). With nerve damage from diabetes, there may be no chest pain.
- Sudden weakness or numbness on one side, confusion, trouble talking, seeing or walking, or a sudden severe headache? Call 911 right away: it may be a stroke (NIDDK).
- Thoughts of suicide? Call or text 988, any hour, free (ours).
More help
- On this site: When it might be a heart attack · When it might be a stroke · When blood sugar goes too low or too high · Heart, blood and hormones: find the right page.
- Alongside it: High blood pressure · High cholesterol · The A1C test · Your kidneys · Blood pressure log · Blood sugar log · Quit smoking · My medicines.
- When it is hard to pay: When you can’t afford your medicine · When you need a doctor and can’t pay. Getting ready: Get ready for your appointment.
- In an emergency: Help right now (988, 911). All our free tools.
Your heart, blood pressure, blood sugar, thyroid or blood, and not sure this is the right page? The pages on this site for a heart attack or stroke, blood pressure, AFib, heart failure, cholesterol, diabetes and prediabetes, the thyroid, anemia, sickle cell and menopause, on one list.
Other guides on this site that go with this page
Free to read. We chose these ourselves; no professional did. Each guide was written with AI and has not been reviewed by a professional. They are general information, not advice.
- When it’s heart failure: when to call 911, symptoms, the ejection fraction number, medicines, the morning weigh-in, salt and fluid, and what to ask: heart failure: when it is a 911 call and when to call your provider, the ejection fraction number, the kinds of medicine, the morning weigh-in, and salt and fluid.
- Diabetes and your mouth: gum disease, dry mouth, the signs to check for, the dentist, and the cost: diabetes and your mouth: how diabetes changes your saliva, gum disease (gingivitis and periodontitis), dry mouth and the other mouth problems, the signs to check for, what to tell your dentist, getting ready for dental work, and keeping your mouth healthy when money is tight.
- Diabetes, sexual and bladder problems: erection trouble, dryness and pain, leaks, trouble going, infections, and what helps: diabetes, sexual and bladder problems: why diabetes can change sex and the bladder, erection problems, low desire, dryness and painful sex, yeast and bladder infections, leaks, trouble going, and what helps.
This page and its wording were written with AI (Claude) for Scarlet Beast (our AI policy). No doctor or nurse has reviewed it. The facts were read on October 20, 2026 on NIDDK’s (NIH) page Diabetes, Heart Disease, & Stroke (last reviewed April 2021). The numbers (nearly twice as likely; about 40% of people with diabetes have kidney disease; double the chance with a family heart attack before 50; a waist over 40 or 35 inches; an A1C goal below 7% for many people; over 40 for statins; within an hour of a stroke; the quitline 1-800-QUIT-NOW, 1-800-784-8669) are NIDDK’s, and we add none. We left out NIDDK’s blood pressure number: the page was last reviewed in April 2021 and a goal is set person by person, so we say what NIDDK also says: ask what yours should be. Ours: 988; not driving yourself and noting the time; never starting daily aspirin, or stopping or changing a heart or diabetes medicine, on your own; the lines to say; the card; the links to our other pages; and the order of the steps. What we left out: NIDDK’s section on clinical trials, its references, its pictures and videos, and its outside links; we name no brands and no doses, and no single medicine besides the aspirin and statins NIDDK names. Nothing you tick or type here is saved or sent.