What are the complications or difficulties of diabetes?

Heart, kidney diseas: There are many complications of diabetes. Most important, it is considered the same as if you had a heart attack. That means your doctor will treat you as if you already had a heart attack even if you didn't actually. Diabetes also affects the kidneys, eyes, nerves, and stomach all due to its effects on your blood vessels. All of these problems can be mitigated by controlling diabetes.

Multiple organs: Diabetes increases your risk for many serious health problems in body systems including your eyes, heart, brain, feet, skin, blood pressure, kidneys, hearing, oral health, GI tract, and periperal nerves.

Blindness: Diabetic retinopathy is the number one reason people age 25-65 loose vision in the USA.

Heart: Patient with diabetes die as a result of heart attack more often than any other reason.

Limb loss: The patient most likely to have legs or feet amputated is a person with uncontrolled diabetes.

Painful feet: Peripheral neuropathy occurs in patients most often with diabetes. This is a result from vessels not perfusing the small nerves to the legs and feet.

Coma: A condition called diabetic ketoacidosis can lead to a coma and death. This occurs when he glucose rises very high greater than 400.

Dry eyes: Patients with diabetes, especially uncontrolled diabetes, tend to develop peripheral neuropathy including the nerves of cornea. This prevents the corneal nerves from sending the message to the brain that the eyes are dry. Blinking causes irritation to the eyes in the face of less tears. This is one reason contact lenses are a bad idea for patients with diabetes. This must be treated.

Kidney damage: The number one reason people loose their kidney function and must receive dialysis multiple times per week is diabetic nephropathy.

Glaucoma: Studies that show that diabetes is a risk factor for glaucoma. Conversely, other studies show that diabetes is not a risk factor for glaucoma. There are many types of glaucoma. The most broad category is open angle glaucoma versus closed angle glaucoma. The category under each open and closed is primary or secondary. In diabetes, neovascular glaucoma can occur when retinopathy is advanced.

Tooth loss: Up to 30 percent of patients with diabetes have tooth loss secondary to periodontal disease. The signs are bleeding gums, loose teeth, bad breath, calculus, appearance of elongation of teeth, appearance that teeth are becoming seperated.

Impotence: Before you blame your impotence to age or other causes, consider vascular disease from diabetes, hypertension, cholesterol. A complete physical exam is warranted before a prescription for viagra (sildenafil) is considered.

Cataracts: Diabetes, specifically uncontrolled diabetes, creates an environment where cataracts progress more quickly. Instead of having surgery for cataracts at age 70 or 80 it can occur 10-30 earlier. In addition, the cataract surgery can make diabetic retinopathy worse.

Ocular stroke: Diabetes predisposes patients to ocular stroke. Ocular strokes is a broad term, the specific terms used by eye physicians are vein occlusions of the eye, retina occlusions, optic nerve ischemia events, the events can be partial or complete. These events tells the physician and patient that the possibility of an brain stroke is higher. A work up to determine what led to the event is appropriate.

Pregnancy: Pregnancy is complicated by diabetes. The unborn child tends to be larger in size, which can lead to delivery complications. In addition, the unborn child is at risk for conditions such as heart defects. There is a difference between pregnancies in patients who already had diabetes and new onset diabetes during pregnancy. Ask your obgyn or endocrine doctor.

Cardiovascular: Heart attack, stroke, blindness, kidney failure, infections, nerve damage, and death.

Too Many: The elevated glucose in the blood stream affects almost every tissue in your body, in a bad way. Brain strokes, heart attacks, teeth loss, kidney failure, peripheral neuropathy, blindness, dry eyes, prone to infections, foot ulcer and limb loss.