Diabetes causes damage at a micro-vascular level, which means it attacks the very smallest of our blood vessels and the nerves themselves. Our tiniest blood vessels are found in our eyes and uncontrolled diabetes will eventually leave you totally blind, after slowly degrading your vision over the course of years. The nervous system damage is generally centred on the extremities, usually the feet specifically. Diabetics lose sensation and when this happens, any cut or scrape they experience in their feet may get infected. Infection leads to gangrene and the need to amputate. This is how a diabetic could lose a foot. To top it all off, unmanaged diabetes will increase the likelihood and severity of heart disease which as I’m sure you know, can kill you.
Essentially the earlier you catch diabetes, the quick you can get it under control and the quicker you can get it under control the less damage it’s likely to do to you.
For years scientists have been advocating the early warning screening methods for everyone concerned about diabetes, especially those people in high risk groupings (generally the obese or those with the genetic predilection). In a recent study however, it was shown that the screenings didn’t actually do anything to lessen the mortality rate and could cause problems themselves with false positives and the sheer amount of money and time they cost to carry out. The individual tests were cheap but so many people needed to be screened that it got ridiculous.
There are now strong arguments for and against screening and medical experts seem unsure which is best for people in general!