Take Control to Avoid Diabetes Complications
If you've been diagnosed with diabetes, whether you have Type 1 or Type 2, you may feel like the situation is totally out of your control. The fact is you may someday face one or more complications -- including some very scary ones like blindness, heart disease, kidney failure, and serious nerve damage. Yet among these dark possibilities exists a ray of real hope: clinical trials have proven that taking an active role in your health can reduce the risk of diabetic complications. What exactly does that mean? The more lifestyle changes you make, such as planning healthy meals, exercising regularly, monitoring blood glucose levels, taking your medication, and reducing risk factors, the likelier you are to live longer and enjoy way better quality of life.
Why Things Get Complicated
Because they can affect different parts of your body, common and serious problems secondary to your diabetes can take many forms. Large blood vessels may become narrow, slowing blood flow and putting you at risk of heart disease, stroke, or circulatory problems. Damage to small vessels (retinopathy) can affect your vision when it's in the eyes and lead to kidney disease (nephropathy) when in the kidneys. Nerve damage (neuropathy) may cause tingling or burning sensations, or outright numbness -- especially in the feet and legs. Neuropathy can even diminish the function of internal organs such as the stomach, intestines, and bladder.
Take this Warning to Heart!
Statistics reveal that diabetes raises your risk of heart and blood vessel disease, so don't take it lightly. Men with the disease are 2 to 4 times more likely to have a heart attack than those without it, while women with diabetes are 4 to 8 times more likely to suffer one compared to others. But, by taking an active role in your health you can reduce risk factors significantly:
Risk Factors - Preventive Measures
- High Blood Sugars - Achieve good blood sugar control to prevent or reduce blood vessel damage.
- High Blood Pressure - Talk to your health care professional about treatment options of possible blood vessel damage.
- Cigarette Smoking - Quit smoking - talk to your heath care professional about smoking cessation programs
- Family History of Premature Heart Disease - Give your health care provider with a complete medical history.
- Obesity - Consult your doctor about a diet and exercise routine that will work for you.
- Physically Inactive - Discuss an exercise program with your doctor.
What's the most potent preventative measure? Be sure to see your health care professional on a regular basis. If problems do show up, you and your doctor can work together to improve things before they get out of hand.
Don't Be Blindsided
Since diabetes is the leading cause of adult blindness in the United States, you owe it to yourself to prevent eye complications by seeing an ophthalmologist at least once a year for a dilated eye exam. Early detection and effective treatments for glaucoma, cataracts, or retinopathy can make all the difference. Keep blood sugar levels and blood pressure under tight control, quit smoking, and make an appointment with your eye care professional immediately for vision problems and acute eye conditions.
Glaucoma: With diabetes, you are 40% more likely to develop glaucoma, a build-up of pressure in the eye. On top of that, the risk of developing glaucoma increases with age and years of having the disease. Treatment mainly involves medication to reduce the pressure in the eye, though surgery may be an option.
Cataracts: Diabetes makes you 60% more likely to have this condition where the clear lens of the eye clouds up and blocks light. Wearing sunglasses and glare-control lenses in your glasses offer mild forms of treatment, but cataracts that interfere with your vision may require surgery.
Retinopathy: A general term for all disorders of the retina caused by diabetes, there are two major types: nonproliferative and proliferative. In the first, the blood vessels (capillary) of the eye balloon and form pouches, though this produces no symptoms and vision is generally not affected. Treatment involves yearly eye exams to make sure the condition is not getting worse. With the second type, blood vessels in the retina are so damaged that they close off. New blood vessels start growing but are too weak and leak blood, which blocks your vision and leads to a condition called "vitreous hemorrhage." What's worse, these new blood vessels can cause scar tissue to grow and subsequently shrink, distorting the retina or pulling it out of place and causing retinal detachment.
Treatment options: "Scatter" and "Focal" Photocoagulation both involve the use of laser therapy. A "Vitrectomy" removes scar tissue and cloudy fluid from inside the eye.
Kidney Info to Filter
Millions of tiny blood vessels (capillaries) act as filters in the kidneys, primarily to remove waste products from the blood. But with diabetes, high levels of blood sugar make the kidneys filter too much, which over time causes the capillaries to leak -- losing useful protein via the urine.
Microalbuminuria occurs when small amounts of protein appear in the urine, signaling the beginning of kidney disease. When diagnosed early there are treatments available to slow down its progression.
Macroalbuminuria means large amounts of protein are leaking into the urine, usually leading to "End Stage Renal Disease."
Prevention involves keeping blood sugars under tight control, which has been shown to reduce risk of Microalbuminuria by one third! Visit your physician regularly to check your blood sugar, blood pressure, urine (for protein), and blood (for waste products).
Treatment also calls for tight control of blood sugars and blood pressure, as well as avoiding alcohol and smoking. Exercise should help, but discuss this with your doctor before starting. A class of blood pressure medications called ACE inhibitors has been shown to slow kidney disease while also lowering blood pressure, so ask your physician which one is right for you. Though some experts endorse a low-protein diet, never start this without a consultation to confirm the need.
If your kidneys become so diseased that they fail, transplantation and dialysis are the only treatment options left, but they should still be discussed thoroughly with your family and health care team.
Don't Give Nerve Damage a Toehold
A feeling of tingling or burning could be your first sign of a commonly occurring damage to the nerves -- particularly in your feet. Also known as neuropathy, this kind of diabetes complication causes decreased sensation and makes the foot prone to undetected injury. Inspect your feet every single day and have your physician check them at least once a year, but be sure to report any interim problems immediately.