Adult-onset Diabetes – Complications – Long term

21 May, 2009 No Comment

What are the complications of Adult-onset diabetes in the long term?

Unlike the complications of adult-onset diabetes in the short term, long-term complications develop over a long period. If you do not control your blood glucose level the long term effects on various organs are quite high and could also be fatal. The following are the long term complications.

Cardiovascular systems problems
Diabetes aggravates the probability of risks to cardiovascular systems; this causes disease of coronary artery, atherosclerosis, chest pain, heart attack and high BP. The probability of getting a heart disease or stroke is twice as high for a diabetic as compared to a non-diabetic person. Diabetics get heart disease/ stroke at a much younger age as compared to others. Middle aged persons having adult-onset diabetes are susceptible to having a heart attack than a non-diabetic who already had one heart attack. Women below the age of menopause have fewer chances of heart attacks than men of the same age. A study in US has established that 75% of diabetics die of heart problems.

Diabetic neuropathies or Nerve damages
If your blood glucose level is high, the excess sugar damages the walls of your blood vessels mainly in your legs. These blood vessels are responsible for giving nourishment to your nerves. This might cause burning, numbness, pain and tingling starting from your toe tips and slowly spreading upwards. You could lose sensation in these areas if you do not treat this immediately. If the nerves controlling your digestion is affected it could cause constipation, diarrhea, nausea or vomiting. This also could result in erectile dysfunction for men.

Alzheimer’s disease
The diabetics are prone to get Alzheimer’s disease/ dementia. Diabetes could cause cardiovascular problems that could again lead to dementia by stopping blood flow to brain. If there is a lot of insulin in your blood leading to the brain it could cause inflammation to the brain whereas shortage of insulin could cause damage to brain cells for lack of glucose.

Diabetic Retinopathy or Eye disease
The capillaries of your retina could get damaged if you have diabetes and this is called diabetic retinopathy; this condition could make you blind. Diabetes also is responsible for glaucoma and cataracts.

Damage to Foot
People who have diabetes are susceptible to nerve and vascular damage and this can result in loss of sensation in the feet, poor circulation and poor healing of foot ulcers. All these conditions could cause amputation of your legs.

Diabetic nephropathy or Kidney damage
The kidneys are equipped with millions of tiny clusters of blood vessels for the purpose of filtering waste matter from your blood and diabetes could cause damage to this filtering system. If the damage is severe to your kidney it is irreversible thereby warranting dialysis or transplant of kidney.

Osteoporosis
BMD (Bone Mineral Density) of a person could be affected by diabetes and this will cause osteoporosis.

Problems in your mouth
Diabetes might result in gingivitis.

Skin problems
Diabetics are easily affected by skin infections that could be bacterial or fungal. This causes considerable itching.