What are the complications caused by Diabetes?
Overview
Blood glucose is the main source of energy for the body and insulin allows blood glucose to enter the body’s cells, which is then converted into energy.
Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a chronic disease that occurs either if the pancreas does not produce enough insulin or if the body fails to use the insulin it produces effectively.
There are three major types of Diabetes:
Type 1 Diabetes is an autoimmune disease and occurs when the body fails to produce insulin. The immune system attacks and destroys the cells within the pancreas. Patients with type 1 diabetes are required to take insulin injections throughout their life.
Type 2 Diabetes is the most common type and occurs when the body turns resistant to insulin, causing sugar to build up in the blood. Prolonged high blood glucose levels in the blood require beta cells in the pancreas to work harder to release and produce enough insulin to control high blood sugar levels. This scenario leads to the loss of beta cells as well as hampering their effective functioning. Beta cells may eventually be unable to produce enough insulin to control blood sugar levels.
Gestational Diabetes develops in some women during their pregnancy. It has no symptoms and can result from placenta producing hormones that cause high glucose levels in your blood. Gestational diabetes usually disappears after pregnancy, but the affected women are more prone to develop type 2 diabetes.
What are the complications caused by Diabetes?
People with diabetes have an increased risk of developing a number of serious health problems. Consistently high blood glucose levels can lead to serious diseases affecting the heart and blood vessels, eyes, feet, kidneys, nerves, and teeth. The risk of complications is especially higher in cases of uncontrolled blood sugar.
Let us look at various complications that uncontrolled diabetes can cause in the body.
Eye complications
The eye complications caused by diabetes are:
Diabetic Retinopathy
Diabetes causes damage to the blood vessels of the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye, i.e. the retina.
Diabetic Retinopathy may have no symptoms or only mild vision problems. But if left untreated, it may lead to blindness.
Cataract
Cataract is a clouding of the lens in the eye which leads to a decrease in vision. Cataracts often develop slowly and can affect one or both eyes. Symptoms may include faded colors, blurry or double vision, halos around light, trouble with bright lights, and trouble seeing at night.
Glaucoma
Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases, where eye pressure is raised beyond the normal values, which damages the optic nerves of the eyes.
In adults, diabetes nearly doubles the risk of glaucoma. If left untreated, it may also cause permanent blindness.
Foot complications
Uncontrolled diabetes causes damage to nerves and blood vessels in the foot or surrounding area. These damages can lead to foot infection known as diabetic foot.
It can cause tingling, numbness, burning, or pain that starts at the toes or fingers. If left untreated, it can lead to wound healing problems, where a simple injury like shoe bite can lead to a wound that won’t heal.
This can become serious if not treated timely and can even lead to amputation of the foot or leg.
Cardiovascular complications
Uncontrolled diabetes can lead to many serious heart problems, such as ischemic heart disease, when the blood supply to the heart muscle is diminished or blocked.
Cardiovascular disease is the most common cause of death in people with diabetes. High blood pressure, high cholesterol, high blood glucose, and other risk factors contribute to increasing the risk of cardiovascular complications.
Kidney complications
Diabetes damages kidney functions causing wastes to build up in the body. The damage usually occurs gradually over the years.
Severe damage can lead to Kidney Failure and the need for kidney dialysis and transplant. Globally diabetes is a leading cause of chronic kidney disease and end-stage kidney disease.
Pregnancy complications
During pregnancy, diabetes can also lead to complications in newborns, such as jaundice or breathing problems and abnormally high birth weight, which can also result in more injuries during childbirth.
Children who are exposed for a long time to high blood glucose in the womb are at higher risk of developing diabetes in the future.
All women with diabetes during pregnancy, type 1, type 2, or gestational should strive for target blood glucose levels throughout to minimize complications.
Oral complications
Apart from our vital organs, diabetes can cause Oral complications as well
People with diabetes have an increased risk of inflammation of the gums if blood glucose is not properly managed.
Inflammation of the gums is a major cause of tooth loss. Diabetics also suffer from dry mouth, mouth ulcers, and bad breath.
Sexual Problems
The most common sexual problem caused by Diabetes in men is erectile dysfunction. Reduced blood flow and nerve damage can be the underlying reasons for erectile dysfunction.
Men with diabetes may also have a low libido and may not feel like having sex when their blood glucose levels are high.
Some women with diabetes may experience sexual problems such as
- Vaginal dryness
- Decrease in sexual desire
- Pain during sex
- Trouble having an orgasm, and
- Yeast infection
Though a high prevalence of sexual dysfunction in both men and women has been reported over the past decade, only a fraction of patients reach out for help due to associated social stigma.
Diabetic Neuropathy
Uncontrolled diabetes may cause nerve damage which can make it harder for the nerves to carry messages between the brain and every part of the body. Diabetic neuropathy most commonly affects the nerves present in the legs and feet.
Diabetic neuropathy can be prevented with proper blood sugar control and a healthy lifestyle.
As we can see diabetes can cause various complications in the body. However, proper diabetes management can prevent or slow the progression of many diabetes complications.
