Living Healthy and Preventing Diabetic Complications
Everyone wants to live a healthy life and a diabetic has an excellent chance for doing that if they learn how to monitor their blood glucose, follow instructions given to them by their medical team and by eating nutritious foods and getting daily exercise.
There are many complications of diabetes that may be able to be prevented by knowing what to look out for and by doing all you can to take care of your body.
A common complication of diabetes is nerve damage, which can lead to other problems. Nerve damage is also called diabetic neuropathy when it occurs in someone who has diabetes. Diabetic neuropathy makes it difficult for the nerves to send message to the brain and also to other parts of the body. Diabetics with nerve damage may lose the feeling in parts of their body or they may have a painful tingling. The most common body part to be affected by diabetic neuropathy is the feet and legs. Individuals with diabetic neuropathy may continue walking on a foot that has an infected sore or that has been fractured bones or damaged joints because they cannot feel the damage. Danger signs are redness and a feeling of warmth in the foot. The diabetic must remember to check their feet everyday for signs of sores, infections, cuts or scrapes or other signs of damaged tissue. Your diabetic doctor will schedule an appointment to professionally check your feet once a year.
Eye problems are another complication that a diabetic might face. The disease diabetes can cause damage to the small blood vessels in the retina, which can lead to diabetic retinopathy. When retinopathy worsens it can cause blindness if the retina breaks away from the back of the eye. The usual treatment for retinopathy is laser surgery. Individuals with diabetes should see their ophthalmologist once a year for a thorough examination.
There are warning signs for eye problems that include blurred vision that lasts for more than 2 days, a sudden loss of vision in one or both eyes, black spots, or flashing lights in your vision, redness in your eye, pain or pressure in your eye.
Another common complication of diabetes is kidney damage. Those with diabetes may have damage to the blood vessels in the kidneys known as diabetic nephropathy. If the diabetic gets this kidney disease they may need to have dialysis, which is a treatment that helps the body to rid itself of waste from the blood. They may end up having to have a kidney transplant.
Heart disease and stroke can be complications that those who have diabetes may be at risk for. The risk increases if they also have individuals in their family who also have diabetes or if they smoke, have high blood pressure, or have a family history of heart disease or if the individual is overweight. Heart disease is easier to treat if caught early on.
If you have diabetes you can increase your odds of preventing these diabetic complications by eating a well-balanced nutritious diet, avoid foods that are high in fat and sugar, maintain a healthy weight for your height, control your blood pressure and your blood cholesterol levels, exercise everyday, quit smoking if you are a smoker, and also by see your medical team on a regular basis.
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