You may think that diabetes doesn’t really have a major impact on your wellbeing. Sure, you can’t eat as many doughnuts as you used to, but you’ll be fine, right? In fact, diabetes can be a silent killer as, if it goes uncontrolled, it can lead to deadly wellness complications.
Firstly, let’s look at diabetic ketoacidosis. This is an effect that diabetes has on your fat and metabolism, in which your body starts using fat as a fuel source because you’re lacking enough insulin – the hormone responsible for breaking down glucose. This can lead to symptoms such as deep gasping breathing, acute pain in your abdomen, bad dehydration leading to weakness and fainting and vomiting, and if you notice anything like this, you need to take it seriously and contact your doctor.
But the wellness complications don’t end there. Diabetic retinopathy is a condition which affects your eyes and vision. The innermost layer of your eye, your retina, is affected by ineffective blood glucose control. When this happens, the small blood vessels in your retina are damaged and weakened, which can present early symptoms of eye problems related to diabetes such as blurred vision and double vision. However, if you let it get past that stage, you can also develop a severe, permanent loss of vision, cataracts and glaucoma.
Uncontrolled blood sugar levels can also lead to diabetic nephropathy, which affects your kidneys. Hypertension or high blood pressure can increase your risk for this condition even further, and you need to watch out for signs of swelling in your feet and legs or around your eyes. Diabetics with high blood pressure – as well as those who are smokers, grossly overweight and/or have a family history of diabetes – are also at a high risk of developing heart disease and strokes.
Finally, your nerves affect just about every process in your body and uncontrolled diabetes can affect these too. You might experience a loss of sensation, especially around your peripheries like legs, which means you might not be able to figure out if you’ve had an injury and it may end up getting infected. Diabetic gangrene can cause your leg flesh to decay and you may need an amputation. Your nerve damage can also cause diarrhoea, erectile dysfunction, loss of bladder control, and dizziness.
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