WJTV in conjunction with Windsor Medicare Extra and the Diabetes Care Group are joining forces to help lower the number of cases of diabetes in Mississippi. We have developed a series of the 12 most frequently asked questions about diabetes.
Dr. Jinna Shepherd answers the question, "What Are The Consequences Of Diabetes?"
Diabetes is so terrible because it causes so many long-term complications. The consequences of uncontrolled diabetes are damage to the small and large blood vessels of your body, resulting in kidney disease, eye disease, painful nerve disease, vascular disease, foot ulcers, amputations, heart attacks, and strokes. These complications, if allowed to occur, limit your life and make you sicker little by little, the result being decades of being chronically unwell, beset with expensive medications and complications, and in the end an early death. The immediate consequences of diabetes include dangerous conditions of high and low blood sugars and infections.
Three quarters of all diabetics will die of a heart attack, and diabetic patients account for a large proportion of the increasing prevalence of cardiovascular disease. Diabetes is both the most common and fastest growing cause of kidney dialysis, the number one cause of adult blindness, and the number one cause of limb amputations in the United States.
But the good news is that almost all of these consequences are relatively easily preventable. By taking good care of your diabetes, and making sure that your blood sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol stay within recommended target levels, you can reduce your chance of getting these complications to a level similar to non-diabetics.
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