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Diabetes
What heart problems can unhealthy blood vessels cause?
When arteries become clogged and narrowed, you may have one or more heart problems:
- Chest pain, also called angina (an-JY-nuh). When you have angina, you feel pain in your chest, arms, shoulders, or back. You may feel the pain more when your heart works faster, such as when you exercise. The pain may go away when you rest. You also may feel very weak and sweaty. If you do not get it treated, chest pain may happen more often. If diabetes has damaged the heart nerves, you may not feel the chest pain.
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Heart attack. A heart attack happens when a blood vessel in or near the heart becomes blocked. Not enough blood can get to that part of the heart muscle. That area of the heart muscle stops working, so the heart is weaker. During a heart attack, you may have chest pain along with nausea, indigestion, extreme weakness, and sweating.
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Cardiomyopathy (KAR-dee-oh-my-OP-uh-thee). Cardiomyopathy happens when narrowed blood vessels let less blood flow through the heart. This damage makes the heart muscle weak.