The main complications of diabetes

The main complications of diabetes

Diabetes is a very serious disease that if not controlled can cause serious health complications. What are the most common diseases associated with diabetes 1 and 2? We discover them.

Diabetes consists of a chronic disease that appears at the moment when the pancreas is not able to produce insulin, or when our body can not make good use of the insulin it normally produces.

And what is insulin? It is a hormone produced by the pancreas, which provides the possibility that glucose from the different foods we eat passes from the bloodstream to the different cells of the body in order to produce energy.

For example, all foods high in carbohydrates tend to break down into blood glucose. In turn, insulin helps the glucose enter the cells.

Precisely when our body is not able to use insulin effectively, or when it is unable to produce it, high levels of glucose in the blood are produced, which is medically known as hyperglycemia.
Many patients who have been diagnosed with diabetes tend to mistakenly think that, being a disease that presumably will not kill them, they tend to forget about the control of their sugar, do not take care of their diet and do not establish a change of life and habits fundamental in the most occasions.

But what happens when high blood glucose levels are maintained for a long time? Body injuries and failures occur in the different organs and tissues of our body. And is that although the disease can be considered a disease that in most cases does not kill (although in Spain is considered one of the main causes of death), it does produce serious health complications.

Major complications of diabetes
Heart diseases
Did you know that people with diabetes have a higher risk of having a heart attack or suffering from another heart disease? Statistics indicate that 2 out of 3 people with diabetes die from heart disease.

Among the most common heart diseases related to diabetes, we can mention heart failure, coronary heart disease, heart attack and diabetic cardiomyopathy.

The reason is due to the obstruction of the blood vessels, which for example can cause a heart attack and other related problems.

Renal disease
Diabetes is considered the most common cause of kidney disease, constituting more than 44% of the cases diagnosed each year.

Diabetes can lead to kidney failure, and damage to the kidneys tends to be more likely when blood sugar is not controlled, high blood pressure occurs, and tobacco is consumed daily.

As the kidney damage begins, symptoms do not tend to occur, so kidney damage may have started 5 or 10 years before they begin to be noticed: fatigue, malaise, headache, vomiting and nausea, swelling of the legs, lack of appetite and propensity to develop infections.

Blindness
Diabetes tends to cause damage to the eyes, is one of the main causes of eye disease. The most common problem is diabetic retinopathy, the most common cause of decreased vision or blindness.

It actually consists of one of the most frequent complications. It is a damage that progresses progressively, which affects the blood vessels of the retina, and can eventually cause total blindness.

Retinopathy tends to become more severe when the person has been living with diabetes for many years, being frequent among those patients who were diagnosed, for example, more than 30 or 35 years ago.

Stroke
Diabetes is also another related cause of stroke, stroke or stroke, which happens when the blood flow stops suddenly to part of the brain, causing damage to brain tissue.

If you have diabetes, the likelihood of having a stroke is higher, but the risk can be reduced if you take care of your health, maintain healthy lifestyle habits, and control your blood sugar levels.