Various Health Complications of Diabetes and What to do

If you have type 2 diabetes, you need to take care of your health and have regular checkups with your doctor. This is because having type 2 diabetes increases your risk of other health complications, often silently, without symptoms, as diseases take root in the body that you don’t even realize.

In this article, you will learn about the various health complications caused by diabetes as well as what you can do about them.

Some of the health complications of diabetes include:

Heart problems and brain stroke
Decreased sense of touch and pain (a sign of nerve damage)
Foot problems, such as sores, wounds, and infections
Vision loss and blindness
Miscarriage (loss or death of a fetus) and stillbirth
Kidney problems
Sexual problems (absence of erection, i.e., inability to harden or maintain an erection)

Keeping your blood sugar under control and regularly following your doctor’s advice greatly reduces the risk of such complications.

Blood sugar test (HbA1C test) every 3 months

This test measures the average amount of sugar in your blood. This way, you can determine how close your sugar level is to the normal range.

Patients newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should undergo this test every 3 months. If your diabetes is under control, you can have this test done every 6 months.

Checkup once a year:

Heart, cholesterol, and kidney tests

Diabetes increases your risk of heart disease, kidney disease, and stroke, so it is better to catch and treat high blood pressure and high cholesterol sooner. These diseases silently nest in your body. These diseases usually do not show symptoms until they become serious, so they are not detected until they are tested.

Get your blood pressure and blood cholesterol levels (the amount of fat in the blood) checked at least once a year.

If you are already taking medication for high blood pressure or cholesterol, continue taking that medication.

Apart from these, diabetes makes the negative effects of smoking on the heart worse, so diabetic patients should especially avoid smoking.

Loss of sensation or sensation in the hands and feet

Tell your doctor if you notice any unusual changes in your hands or feet.

Diabetes can damage your nerves, called ‘diabetic neuropathy’. It usually affects the legs, especially the soles of the feet. However, this damage can also affect other parts of the body, resulting in the following problems in the affected area:

Paralysis or numbness
The pain
Tingling
sexual problems
Constipation or diarrhea

Early treatment can greatly prevent this damage.

Foot Care:

Check your feet every day, especially your feet. Take care of your feet regularly, noting any abnormalities.

Diabetes can cause paralysis in any part of the foot by reducing the blood supply to your feet. If there is any injury or wound on the leg, it needs a lot of speed to recover. These wounds or sores may not heal properly, and if any part of the leg is injured or paralyzed, it can be difficult to understand. This can lead to problems like foot ulcers or infections.

So you have to be aware of whether you are getting proper sensation in your two feet, i.e., whether you are able to feel touch, pain, cold, hot, etc. You should regularly check if any part of your leg is paralyzed. It is also important to take care of any kind of wound, ulcer, or infection on the feet.

To avoid these problems, it is important to follow some minor points, such as:

Keeping your feet, especially your feet, clean and dry will reduce your risk of infection.
Avoid going out barefoot to avoid cuts or scratches.
Well-fitting, i.e., wearing shoes that are the right size—not too tight or too tight, and not too loose.

Contact your doctor immediately if you notice any unusual changes in your feet, such as:

Thorny
Sores or wounds
Broken leg
Blisters
Pain or tingling in the legs

Numbness of feet and toes, i.e., loss of feeling there
Get your feet checked by a doctor every year.

Failure to promptly treat a foot wound, sore, or infection can result in gangrene, necessitating surgical amputation of either the affected area or the entire foot.

Eye Exam

Diabetes can damage the blood vessels in the eye, leading to vision problems (diabetic retinopathy) and even blindness. Therefore, it is important to undergo an annual eye examination to assess the normalcy of the eye blood vessels.

All diabetics 12 years of age and older should have an eye exam once a year.

Regular eye exams can catch your eye problems before they affect your vision. A short 30-minute screening by looking at the back of the eye can catch diabetic retinopathy earlier, making treatment more effective. Treating eye blood vessel problems promptly can prevent vision problems.

See a doctor immediately if you notice any unusual changes in your vision, including the following 3 problems:

Blurred vision, especially at night,
Floaters,
Increased sensitivity to light.

Pregnancy and Diabetes:

Consult your doctor if you are planning to have a child. You can safely conceive and give birth with type 2 diabetes, but for that, you must have a special doctor’s check-up regularly during pregnancy.