Diabetes is a dangerous condition that can impair your eyes, heart, nerves, feet, and kidneys. Understanding how diabetes affects your body is crucial. It can help you adhere to your treatment plan and stay as healthy as possible.
How Do Diabetes-Related Health Issues Develop?
If your diabetes is not well managed, the sugar level in your blood rises. This is known as "hyperglycemia" (high blood sugar). High blood sugar levels might cause damage to your body's tiny blood vessels. Imagine what happens to sugar if it is left unwrapped overnight. It becomes sticky. Now imagine how sugar "sticks" to your tiny blood arteries, making it difficult for blood to reach your organs.
Most blood vessel damage occurs in the eyes, heart, nerves, feet, and kidneys. Let's look at how this damage occurs.
- Eyes
Long-term high blood sugar levels can injure the small blood vessels in your eyes. This can cause diabetic retinopathy;
- Heart
High blood sugar levels can also injure major blood arteries in your body, which deliver oxygen to your heart and brain. Fat can accumulate in the blood vessels as well. This can cause a heart attack or stroke;
- Nerves
Nerves convey crucial communications between your brain and the rest of your body. Long-term high sugar levels in your blood can harm the blood arteries that transport oxygen to some neurons. Damaged nerves may stop transmitting pain signals;
- Feet
Diabetes may damage your feet in two ways. First and foremost, it has the potential to harm your nervous system. Nerve damage prevents you from feeling pain or other symptoms in your feet. Diabetes can also affect your feet due to inadequate blood circulation. A sore or infection heals more slowly when there is insufficient blood flow. If sores do not heal and get infected, they might lead to amputation;
- Kidneys
Think of your kidneys as a coffee filter. They maintain what you need within your body while filtering out waste and excess fluid. Your kidneys are full with small blood arteries. Over time, elevated blood sugar levels can cause these blood arteries to constrict and block. As your kidneys receive less blood, less waste and fluid are removed from your body. Diabetes-related kidney disease is referred to as "diabetic renal disease." It is the leading cause of renal failure in the United States. Having renal illness worsens your diabetes. Diabetes and renal illness increase your risk of developing heart disease, stroke, blindness, nerve damage, and foot amputations.
How Can I Prevent Diabetic Complications?
Controlling blood sugar is the most effective strategy to protect your eyes, heart, nerves, feet, and kidneys. It reduces your likelihood of developing any of the health issues associated with diabetes. This applies to all diabetics, with or without renal disease. Ask your doctor what you should do to keep your blood sugar under control.
What more can I do to protect my eyes, heart, nerves, feet, and kidneys against diabetes?
Collaborate with your healthcare team to create a treatment plan that will help you manage diabetes.
- Take frequent exercise;
- Lose weight as needed;
- Eat healthful meals and stick to your diabetic meal plan;
- Take all of your medications as prescribed by your healthcare practitioner;
- Get frequent eye exams;
- Get frequent foot checks. Wear proper-fitting shoes and inspect your feet daily for injuries, blisters, or redness;
- If you smoke, talk to your doctor about a strategy to help you quit.
The bottom line
When you have uncontrolled diabetes, you are more likely to develop a variety of health complications. These issues can have an impact on important organs and systems, including your heart and blood vessels, kidneys, lungs, pancreas, digestive system, and brain. Uncontrolled blood sugar levels can harm your mouth and teeth, eyes, skin, and sexual functions.
Diabetes, in particular, can increase your chance of developing life-threatening illnesses such as heart disease, pancreatic cancer, and kidney failure. Controlling your blood sugar is the most effective strategy to avoid these major health risks.
