How dangerous is diabetes. Types of complications

People who live with diabetes should understand that it is dangerous with complications. Thanks to constant self-control, they can be avoided or delayed in time. For high-quality self-control, it is also important to know what types of complications of diabetes are – in order to notice their earliest manifestations and, if possible, stop the development. So, all types of complications of diabetes are divided into acute and late.

Acute complications of diabetes

Acute complications of diabetes are those that develop rather quickly (in a few hours or even minutes), sharply worsen a person’s well-being and can lead to a critical condition without emergency care. These include:

Hypoglycemia and hypoglycemic coma. This is a sharp drop in blood glucose levels. It occurs if the dose of insulin (including basal insulin) is incorrectly calculated, if you have injected insulin and forgot to eat. Also, the cause may be physical activity or a change in hormonal levels. Hypoglycemia should be stopped as soon as possible – take dextrose (this is fast glucose), another sweet or drink something with sugar. If this is not done, the person may begin to have convulsions, he may lose consciousness and fall into a coma.

Ketoacidosis and ketoacidotic coma. This is the appearance of a significant amount of ketones in the blood. It can develop if blood sugar remains high enough for some time: due to insufficient self-control, the addition of other diseases, alcohol abuse, stress, etc. It develops within a few hours or days. By adjusting insulin doses, restoring fluid loss and mineral and salt metabolism, this condition can be stopped at home. If you do not feel better within a few hours, you should immediately consult a doctor.

Late complications of diabetes

This group of complications appears due to long periods of hyperglycemia – high blood glucose levels. And the relationship here is quite simple: the higher the blood glucose and the longer it persists, the faster these complications of diabetes will come. In a general article on diabetes, we already wrote that uncompensated diabetes leads to damage to all blood vessels in the human body.

Damage to blood vessels is called angiopathy. It may appear in the following forms:

diabetic retinopathy – damage to the retina ( microaneurysms , pinpoint and hemorrhages, edema, formation of new vessels, etc. ). Retinopathy is the most common cause of blindness in middle-aged and elderly people.

diabetic ophthalmopathy , – in addition to retinopathy, includes the early development of cataracts (clouding of the lens).

diabetic micro- and macroangiopathy – a violation of vascular permeability, an increase in their fragility, a tendency to thrombosis and the development of atherosclerosis (occurs early, mainly small vessels are affected).

diabetic polyneuropathy – leads to loss of pain and temperature sensitivity of the hands and feet. Symptoms of neuropathy are numbness, burning sensation, tingling, “goosebumps”, etc. in the hands and feet. Loss of sensation is the cause of easily occurring injuries.

diabetic nephropathy – kidney damage, first in the form of microalbuminuria (albumin protein excretion in the urine), then proteinuria. Leads to the development of chronic renal failure.

diabetic arthropathy – pain in the joints, “crunching”, limited mobility, a decrease in the amount of special fluid inside the joints.

diabetic encephalopathy – mental and mood changes, emotional lability or depression, headaches.

diabetic foot – damage to the feet in the form of non-healing wounds, ulcers and osteoarticular lesions. It is the main cause of amputation in diabetic patients.

This list looks, of course, frightening.

But thanks to self-control, it is quite possible to prevent the onset of acute complications, and late ones – to prevent or greatly delay their occurrence.

To do this, it is important to strive to ensure that as much of the time as possible, your sugars are within the normal range of a healthy person.

Today, there are already enough devices that help with this: glucometers and monitors to control glucose levels throughout the day, syringe pens and pumps for convenient and painless insulin administration or hypoglycemic drugs in various dosages, special foot care products, etc. Also indispensable assistants in diabetes control are special diabetic diaries, thanks to which you can track unwanted changes in your body and prevent them from aggravating.