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One of popular disorders of metabolism is diabetes. There are some diabetes complications that can be a serious health problem! But before discussing more about these complications, you may need to know first what actually diabetes is! As well we know that the food that we eat will be converted to be glucose (a form of sugar that can be found in the blood), which eventually will be the main source for the energy to move our body.
You might also like to read correlation between overweight and diabetes, before continuing!
You might also like to read correlation between overweight and diabetes, before continuing!
After the process of digestion, the glucose will be directed to bloodstream, where the requirements of growth & energy are produced from cells by using the glucose! And in order to make the glucose can be used by the cells, insulin is needed (a hormone that is produced in the pancreas).
The right amount of insulin is so crucial and must be produced as well by pancreas otherwise the cells cannot respond the insulin as well, and the change from glucose to energy will not work properly, which eventually the builds up of glucose in the blood are formed and can cause the large amount of sugar in the blood. And in people with diabetes, the production of insulin does not work properly (the insulin is not in the right amount or even the insulin is not produced).
So what are the complications of diabetes? The following are some major complications (side effects) that may occur in people with diabetes:
1. Diabetes and stroke
In many cases, people with diabetes have higher risk to also get cardiovascular diseases (like stroke) than people without diabetes, why? Because high blood sugar levels can influence the performance of blood vessels, even it can damage the blood vessels.
As well we know that without good-work of blood vessels, the brain cannot work well because it needs rich-O2-blood to work. And blood vessels have vital function to provide rich-O2-blood to the brain. Therefore, if one of blood vessels is blocked or damaged then stroke will occur. Or even if the supply of O2 to the brain is cut off more than 3-4 minutes, this situation can cause a death.
In addition, generally stroke is divided into two major types; ischemic strokes which occur due to the blockage of an artery and hemorrhagic strokes which occur because of a rupture in an artery!
2. Diabetes and kidney disease
In fact, one of the number-one causes that can lead to kidney failure is kidney disease that caused by diabetes or also called ‘diabetic nephropathy’. And people with diabetes are more likely to experience diabetic nephropathy (almost a third of individuals with diabetes).
Kidney disease with diabetes do worse overall than kidney disease alone, because individuals with diabetes are more likely getting long-standing medical conditions, such as poor performance of blood vessels, higher cholesterol and higher blood pressure.
3. Diabetes and heart disease
In person who has diabetes, the heart disease is usually caused by the poor performance of coronary arteries (or hardening of the atherosclerosis) due to a cholesterol build up in the blood vessels which eventually will lead to poor supply of nutrient and O2 to the heart. Read more the correlation between diabetes and heart disease!
4. Diabetic Neuropathy
If you have diabetes (either type 1 or type 2 diabetes) then the chance of your risk to get some form of nerve damage or nerve pain (or usually called ‘diabetic neuropathy) is higher.
Some common symptoms of diabetic neuropathy are numbness, pain or tingling in the hands and feet, which also called ‘peripheral neuropathy’. Or you may also get damage to the nerves that send signals to your sex organs, stomach, bladder or heart, which called ‘autonomic neuropathy’. Or there are no any symptoms that you feel, because in several cases nerve damage comes without any symptoms. Even there are some people who are diagnosed first with nerve damage before they are diagnosed with diabetes.
And by keeping well the levels of your blood sugar will be effective enough to slow down the progress of diabetic neuropathy.
5. Diabetes and high blood pressure!
High blood pressure can make worse the complications of diabetes, especially for kidney disease and eye disease.
In many cases, most of people with diabetes also have increasing risk of cardiovascular problems and high blood pressure, because diabetes can lead to hardening of the arteries. And if this situation is not treated then will cause stroke, kidney failure, heart failure, blood vessel damage, or heart disease!
Therefore, it is so important to keep normal your blood pressure if you have diabetes. Generally, it must not go above 130/80, which the first number for systolic pressure and the second number for diastolic pressure.
6. Diabetes and eye problems
It is so recommended to visit your ophthalmologist regularly to monitor the performance of your eyes - if you get diabetes. This is important recommendation in order to detect or catch the eye problems as earlier as possible or even also helpful to avoid eye-problems.
High blood sugar levels are one of the leading causes of blindness in patients with diabetes, particularly at the age of 20-74. And there are 3 major types of eye problems that can be generated by diabetes; retinopathy, glaucoma, and cataracts!
