Health Tips
Colorado / Managing Diabetes / Reducing Risks
6. Reducing Risks:
When you’re feeling fine, diabetes can be easy to ignore. But diabetes if the 7th leading cause of death in the United States. Mortality rates for people with diabetes are 2-4 times greater than for people without diabetes of the same age. Perhaps even more important is the fact that diabetes can have such a major negative impact on your quality of life. Take a look at all of the major organs that diabetes affects. So why should you do anything about your diabetes? Studies have proven that you can prevent many of the consequences of diabetes. Control your diabetes. Take good care of yourself. Avoid these outcomes.
Heart Attack at a Younger Age:
Diabetes greatly increases the risk of heart problems, including coronary artery disease. You may have chest pain, a heart attack, a stroke, narrowing of arteries, and high blood pressure.
Nerve damage:
Too much sugar can harm the walls of the tiny blood vessels that feed your nerves, especially in the legs. This can cause tingling, numbness, burning or pain that usually begins at the tips of the toes or fingers and slowly moves upward. Over time, you can lose all feeling in the affected limbs. Damage to the nerves that control digestion can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or constipation. For men, erectile dysfunction may be an issue.
Kidney damage:
The kidneys have millions of tiny blood vessels that remove waste from your blood. Diabetes can damage this delicate filtering system. Severe damage can cause to kidney failure. You could need kidney dialysis or a kidney transplant.
Eye damage:
Diabetes can damage the blood vessels of the retina — a part of the eye. This can potentially lead to blindness. Diabetes also increases the risk of other serious vision conditions, such as cataracts and glaucoma.
Foot Damage:
Nerve damage in the feet or poor blood flow to the feet increases the risk of foot complications. If untreated, cuts and blisters can become serious infections. Severe damage might require toe, foot, or even leg amputation (removal).
Skin conditions:
Diabetes can make it easier for bacteria and fungi to infect your skin.
Osteoporosis:
Diabetes may lead to low “bone mineral density”. This increases your risk of osteoporosis.
Alzheimer's disease:
Type 2 diabetes may increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease. The poorer your blood sugar control, the greater the risk appears to be.
Diabetes can damage your heart. This can contribute to dementia by blocking blood flow to the brain or causing strokes. Too much insulin in the blood leads to inflammation in the brain, which damages the brain.
Hearing loss:
Hearing loss is twice as common in people with diabetes. Hearing loss happens slowly and can be hard to notice. It is important to talk with your doctor about hearing tests.