It has long been recognized that cardiac autonomic neuropathy increases morbidity and mortality in diabetes and may have greater predictive power than traditional risk factors for cardiovascular events. Significant morbidity and mortality can now be attributable to autonomic imbalance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system regulation of cardiovascular function (1)
It is also interesting to notice that plasma lactate was strongly associated with type 2 diabetes in older adults as demonstrated in a recent paper (2). According to the authors plasma lactate deserves greater attention in studies of oxidative capacity and diabetes risk.
Both lines of studies come in favour of our point of view (3, 4,5) where the sympathetic predominance represents the primary factor in the cascade of events leading to a higher lactic acid production that provokes an increased perfusion pressure and effects on contractility of coronary arteries resulting in changes in hemodynamic shear stress and atherosclerosis as consequence.
Carlos Monteiro
1. Vinik AI, Zieglert D. Autonomic imbalance: prophet of doom or scope for hope? Diabet. Med. 28, 643-651 (2011) Full free text at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3123705/
2. Stephen O Crawford et al, Association of blood lactate with type 2 diabetes: the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Carotid MRI Study. International Journal of Epidemiology 2010;1–9. Free full text at http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2010/08/25/ije.dyq126.full.pdf+html
3. Sympathetic predominance: a primary factor in the cascade of events leading to the atherogenic spiraling, Carlos Monteiro, Monday, February 22, 2010 at http://aciditytheory.blogspot.com/2010/02/sympathetic-predominance-primary-factor.html
4. Carlos ETB Monteiro, Acidic environment evoked by chronic stress: A novel mechanism to explain atherogenesis. Available from Infarct Combat Project, January 28, 2008 at http://www.infarctcombat.org/AcidityTheory.pdf
5. Association of lipid abnormalities with lactate and coronary artery disease progression. Carlos Monteiro, October 3, 2010 at http://aciditytheory.blogspot.com/2010/10/lactate-coronary-artery-disease-insulin.html
