When you think of diabetes, and I’m talking both kinds here, could you tell me what those whose condition gets out of control can expect to suffer?
If you said blindness or nerve damage leading to amputation, you’d be correct. While those two factors are perhaps the most iconic diabetic issues they’re not the only ones and on their own they’re very unlikely to actually kill you. Diabetes is a condition which imbalances the whole human body just by being there. Raised levels of blood-sugar affect almost every part of the body but one specifically. The kidneys.
Your kidneys are organs which filter your blood. They’re powerful little organs and they work non-stop but they weren’t designed to be constantly filtering high levels of sugar from the blood. To start with they’ll manage, all be it grudgingly but eventually they’ll work too hard for too long and actually start to damage themselves by doing so. Damaged kidneys are weakened kidneys and even if you were to get your condition under control immediately, you’d still be left with kidneys which would either fail entirely or work at a lessened capacity from then on. In terms of your wellbeing, this would mean more waste would be left in your blood which has the capacity to eventually poison you or make you very ill.
Most sufferers of this advanced stage of kidney disease require the regular use of dialysis machines, which help to filter blood. This requires a massive time commitment as those patients have to sit hooked up to a machine for a fair amount of time every week. There’s no cure for kidney disease and sufferers simply have to wait for a transplant which can be a long time in coming, especially if you caused your condition by not managing your diabetes!
The moral of the story, as it always is, is to manage your diabetes. Talk to your medical health professional for advice, join help groups, do whatever you find useful just don’t let your diabetes get to the point where it’s threatening your life!
Comments are closed.