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When diabetes is not properly diagnosed and treated, complications can arise. Most often, this illness is fairly easily controlled, but sometimes a person fails to understand how serious this condition can become and fails to properly care for themselves and their illness. When this happens, certain problems can occur which can be damaging to a person's overall health.
The more you know about diabetes and the ways to properly treat and control this disease, the better your life will be. Diabetics all over the world are living full, healthy lives thanks to the care they give themselves and advances in treatments for this condition, and you can too, when you know what you should be doing.
One major complication of diabetes is the risk of heart disease and stroke. Experts agree that people who are diabetic are at risk of suffering from these problems. Among diabetic patients, heart disease and/or stroke tend to be the leading cause of death because of the fatty deposits in the body caused from the dramatic changes in insulin levels. Diabetics also suffer from more blood clots than other people because of the lower amounts of insulin in the body.
Another major complication from diabetes is the risk of disease to the kidneys from all the work they have to do in constantly filtering toxins from the body. Damaged kidneys tend to send out the good stuff as well as the bad and this can cause problems and inhibit their ability to filter waste from the blood. Not all diabetics will suffer from this life threatening problem, however, so you should work to avoid this complication by avoiding smoking and controlling your blood pressure.
There is a group of eye problems that people who have diabetes are often forced to deal with. Diabetic retinopathy, cataract, and glaucoma are a few of these issues. These are problems which can cause a person to lose their sight if the condition is not treated properly and caught early on.
When a person who has diabetes smokes or drinks alcohol, they might be at risk of developing this condition more than diabetics who do not engage in these behaviors.
Diabetes can cause other problems in people over time as well. Often, the circulation of a diabetic is not as strong and this can cause a general coldness or loss of feeling in the extremities. Over time, people who are diabetic might find that they develop sores on their feet or legs which do not heal like other people's wounds do. If these sores become infected, a diabetic might face gangrene and in extreme cases, lose their limbs due to this problem.
The good news is that many of these problems can often be avoided by making sure to control your diabetes and keep your whole body healthy all the time. Maintain a healthy diet and get plenty of exercise and work to keep your immune system strong by getting plenty of rest and taking supplements such as vitamin C. Diabetes is a condition that you can live with, and live well when you know what to do to manage it.