Diabetes and Complications- World Diabetes Day

Everyone is aware of diabetes, but have you ever thought of the complications of this disease. Why does your doctor keep insisting you to control your blood glucose and set goal for your target HbA1c?

Had Diabetes not been associated with complications, probably we would not have paid so much attention to this disease. We all need to understand that complications arising out of diabetes are very common and so dreadful that only prevention remains the best way.

Unfortunately, once complications arise we don’t have optimized treatment for the same and these complications cannot be reversed. Most of these complications affect your mobility and quality of life and decrease your productive life years. Here we will briefly discuss complications arising out of diabetes:

• Coronary Artery Disease: CAD is one of the most common complications arising out of diabetes and almost 40-50% of patients admitted with CAD are diabetic.
• Stroke: Chances of suffering from stroke doubles if a person is diabetic.
• Peripheral Artery Disease: This is one of the most dreaded complications for any diabetic and most of the patients with amputation in diabetes have PAD.
• Kidney Disease: Fortunately, we can diagnose kidney disease at its early onset and it is mandatory for everyone to get their creatinine and urine microalbumin checked to recognize it at the right time.
• Retinopathy: Diabetic Retinopathy is one of the leading cause of blindness in developed countries. Symptoms of Diabetic Retinopathy come very late, hence yearly fundus examination is a must to avoid stages where treatment becomes difficult.
• Neuropathy: Diabetes is the leading cause of peripheral neuropathy and in the long run leads to foot ulcer and amputation if neglected. Yearly foot examination by your doctor and daily foot examination by you is a must to avoid ulcers.
• Other common Complications: The other complications are erectile dysfunction, loss of libido, alternating diarrhea and constipation, skin infections, recurrent boils.

Hence its prudent to take care of diabetes by diet, exercise, and regular medications as advised by the doctor to avoid these long term complications.