Diabetes can affect many parts of your body like Eye, Nerve, Gum, Heart, Kidney, Lower-limb amputations. If It can lead to serious health problems. People with diabetes most often have Type 1 or Type 2. You are at higher risk for Type 2 diabetes if you:
- Are older
- Are obese
- Don’t get much exercise
- Have a family history of diabetes
You are also at risk if you have pre-diabetes or had gestational diabetes. You are also at risk if you are of a certain ethnic background. This type of diabetes was once seen just in adults. Today more children and teens are being diagnosed with it.
If a diabetic patient becomes careless, Diabetes can affect many parts of your body. Increased blood sugar level can make a person completely blind. Lets learn more…
Diabetes can affect many parts of your body
- Heart and blood vessel disease. Diabetes dramatically increases your risk of various cardiovascular problems, including coronary artery disease with chest pain (angina), heart attack, stroke, narrowing of the arteries (atherosclerosis) and high blood pressure.
-
Nerve damage (neuropathy). Excess sugar can injure the walls of the tiny blood vessels (capillaries) that nourish 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 gradually spreads upward. Poorly controlled blood sugar could cause you to eventually lose all sense of feeling in the affected limbs.
Damage to the nerves that affect the gastrointestinal tract can cause problems with nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or constipation. For men, erectile dysfunction may be an issue. - Kidney damage (nephropathy). The kidneys contain millions of tiny blood vessel clusters that filter waste from your blood. Diabetes can damage this delicate filtering system. Severe damage can lead to kidney failure or irreversible end-stage kidney disease, which requires dialysis or a kidney transplant.
- Eye damage. Diabetes can damage the blood vessels of the retina (diabetic retinopathy), potentially leading 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 various foot complications. Left untreated, cuts and blisters can become serious infections, which often heal poorly and may ultimately require toe, foot or leg amputation.
- Skin and mouth conditions. Diabetes may leave you more susceptible to skin problems, including bacterial and fungal infections.
-
Pregnancy complications. High blood sugar levels can be dangerous for both the mother and the baby. The risk of miscarriage, stillbirth and birth defects are increased when diabetes isn’t well-controlled. For the mother, diabetes increases the risk of diabetic ketoacidosis, diabetic eye problems (retinopathy), pregnancy-induced high blood pressure and preeclampsia.
A baby of a mother who had diabetes during pregnancy may have serious health problems. These include low blood sugar (hypoglycemia), jaundice, respiratory distress syndrome, and low levels of calcium and magnesium. But gestational diabetes most often doesn’t cause birth defects. Birth defects can happen if a woman had diabetes before pregnancy and did not have it under good control early in the pregnancy.
You can help prevent these problems by keeping your blood sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels under control.
Insulin
Insulin helps your body use or store the blood sugar it gets from food. Blood sugar is also called blood glucose. Exercise makes your cells more sensitive to insulin. Your muscles use more blood sugar during exercise. This lowers your blood sugar levels. And that cuts your body’s need for insulin.
Over weight
Being overweight and not getting exercise make it more likely that you will get Type 2 diabetes. Losing weight and being more physically active may help you prevent it.
