So many things inspire me to beat this disease, nothing more than the long term complications that can occur from not respecting it.
Long-term complications of diabetes develop gradually. The longer you have diabetes and the less controlled your blood sugar the higher the risk of the complications. Eventually, diabetes complications may be disabling or even life-threatening. Possible complications include:
- Cardiovascular disease. If you have diabetes, you are more likely to have heart disease or stroke.
- Nerve damage (neuropathy). High sugar levels can injure the walls of the capiliries (tiny blood vessels) that nourish your nerves, especially in your legs. This can cause numbness and pain that usually starts in the toes and fingers tips and spreads. If you continue to run your blood sugar high you possibly could lose all the feeling in the affected limb. If the nerve damage is in the digestive system then this could mean nausea and bowel problems. For men, it may lead to erectile dysfunction.
- Kidney damage (nephropathy). The kidneys filter waste from your blood. Diabetes can damage this filtering system which could lead to kidney failure or irreversible end-stage kidney disease, which may require dialysis or even a kidney transplant.
- Eye damage (retinopathy). Diabetes can damage the blood vessels of the retina (diabetic retinopathy), which could blind you. Cataracts and glaucoma are also associated with poorly controlled diabetes.
- Foot damage. Every year we have to get our eye and foot tests carried out. Diabetes can damage nerves in our feet and poor blood flow to the feet increases the risk of various foot complications. So if you don’t control your diabetes and get an cuts or blisters on your feet you could get serious infections, which often heal poorly and what frightens me so much these infections may ultimately require toe, foot or leg amputation.
- Skin conditions. Diabetes may leave you more susceptible to skin problems.
- Hearing impairment. Diabetics are more prone to hearing problems.
If the complications alone are not enough for you to change your lifestyle have a look at these inspirational quotes from diabetic celebrities or read about the people who have inspired me to change my bad habits.
Courtesy of Joanna’s Quotes youtube Channel
People Who Inspire Me
