Leaving your diabetes uncontrolled can lead to serious complications like blindness, stroke, and amputation!
Heart disease and stroke:
People with diabetes are two times more likely to have heart disease or a stroke as people without diabetes.
Blindness and other eye problems:
Damage to blood vessels in the retina (diabetic retinopathy)
Clouding of the lens (cataract)
Increase in fluid pressure in the eye (glaucoma)
Kidney disease:
High blood sugar levels can damage the kidneys and cause chronic kidney disease (CKD). If not treated, CKD can lead to kidney failure. A person with kidney failure needs regular dialysis (a treatment that filters the blood) or a kidney transplant to survive. About 1 in 3 adults with diabetes has CKD. You won’t know if you have CKD unless your doctor tests you for it.
Nerve damage (neuropathy):
One of the most common diabetes complications, nerve damage can cause numbness and pain. Nerve damage most often affects the feet and legs but can also affect your digestion, blood vessels, and heart.
Amputations:
Diabetes-related damage to blood vessels and nerves, especially in the feet, can lead to serious, hard-to-treat infections. Amputation can be necessary to stop the spread of infection.
Comments