What to expect?

Every few days over the next two weeks, your coach will send you a message with a link to this page. 

You'll see a new video for that segment of the challenge: 

• Diabetes & Heart Health
• Food & Nutrition
• Physical Activity
• Stress Management 

Each topic will have an education component with a goal and a challenge. Complete each challenge assignment to get your goodies (expect those mid-March).

And don't worry, you can personalize the suggested goals with the help of your coach to fit your needs. We want to push you a little bit, but also meet you where you are. Remember, your coach is here for you, so don't hesitate to reach out.

Diabetes & Heart Health

Why is heart health important?

Any type of diabetes can increase your risk for heart attack and stroke. Keeping blood sugars within your target range is one of the best things you can do to protect your heart. 

Having too much sugar in your bloodstream can damage your blood vessels, small and large. Over time, this can lead to a build up of plaque on the inside of blood vessels, a condition known as atherosclerosis. That build up of plaque can cause blocked blood flow to your heart or brain, leading to heart attack or stroke.

Monitoring and managing a few key measurements will go a long way towards maintaining a healthy heart. In other words, know your numbers! The numbers you want to watch are your HbA1c and blood glucose – being sure to watch for patterns in blood sugars. Additionally, keep a close eye on blood pressure trends and your blood lipids: Triglycerides, total cholesterol, LDL, and HDL. 

We'll get into each of these in detail.

Blood pressure

Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is sometimes referred to as the "silent killer" because it usually does not have symptoms. It's also very common – nearly 50% of Americans have hypertension, but most don't know they have it. Simple blood pressure monitoring is all it takes to keep an eye on this, and we'll talk more about this below. Hypertension is diagnosed when blood pressure is consistently 130/80 or above.

The target blood pressure for adults is 120/80. 

The top number is called “systolic” pressure and measures how much pressure your blood is pushing against your artery walls during heartbeats. The bottom number is called “diastolic” pressure, it measures the pressure against your artery walls while your heart is resting, in between beats.

Blood pressure monitoring is the only way to know what your blood pressure is and track changes over time. It's best to monitor at home on multiple days. At the doctor’s office, “white coat syndrome” is common, where your blood pressure is falsely high because you're nervous, anxious or stressed. 

Hypertension can cause damage to all of your organs, just like high blood sugar. But in particular, your eyes, kidneys, and heart are of concern. Prevention is key! One of the strongest levers you have is lifestyle, which we'll get into in more detail throughout the challenge. Medication, diet, exercise, and stress management are common treatments.

The American Heart Association has a great resource, "Common High Blood Pressure Myths" , if you'd like to learn more.

Cholesterol & triglycerides 

Cholesterol often gets a bad reputation, but it's not inherently bad. In fact, our body NEEDS it to build cells and hormones. Our liver actually MAKES cholesterol for us!

When we eat foods with cholesterol (animal products), our body typically makes less. However, most recent shows that the cholesterol from food doesn't have a big impact on your cholesterol levels. But other food can, and we'll get into that more soon.

The two main types of cholesterol to look at are LDL and HDL. These two values are added up to make your total cholesterol measurement. Your HDL is known as the "good" cholesterol, and you can think of it as a street sweeper that sweeps through your blood vessels and cleans up the "bad" cholesterol, LDL, which is delivered to the liver and broken down.

One good memory trick is that you want "L" (LDL) lower and "H" (HDL) higher. Too much LDL or not enough HDL increases the risk of clogging up big blood vessels that feed the heart and brain.

Targets: You want your total cholesterol less than 200 mg/dL, your LDL less than 100 mg/dL, and your HDL greater than 40 for men and greater than 50 for women. 

Triglycerides are a different type of fat found in the blood and it comes from the food we eat. We need triglycerides, but just not too much.  

Too much triglyceride is associated with total body inflammation, but especially of the liver, pancreas, and arteries. This means that high triglyceride can be associated with the hardening of arteries, leading to increased risk of heart disease as well.

Diet has significant impact on your triglyceride level, and we'll talk more about that soon. 

Some people have high cholesterol and triglyceride due to genetics. Typically this doesn't increase risk for heart disease, but you have to look at your body habits, and labs as a whole. 

Targets: You want your triglycerides to be less than 150 mg/dL.

Know your numbers 

Blood pressure: Check your blood pressure at least at every doctor's visit, or per your doctor's recommendation. 

The target blood pressure for adults is 120/80. 130/80 is hypertension.

Lipids: Check your cholesterol and triglyceride levels at least yearly, or per your doctor's recommendation.

The targets for cholesterol and triglycerides are:

• Total cholesterol: less than 200 mg/dL
• HDL cholesterol: greater than 40 mg/dL for men, greater than 50 mg/dL for women
• LDL cholesterol: less than 100 mg/dL
• Triglycerides: less than 150 mg/dL

Blood sugar reminder – the target for most people with diabetes is 70-180 mg/dL, HbA1c 7% or less.

Remember to send a message to your coach if you have any questions or want to talk about the challenge – they are there to support you! Then keep an eye out for the next coach message in a few days. 

Sources:

• American Heart Association

• NHLBI

• CDC