Blood sugar is essential to the life of your cells, because it provides them with energy. In order to move, heal, and do all the wondrous things your body does, it’s important that blood sugar, or glucose, is metabolized efficiently. Glucose also fuels your brain, and keeps it healthy.
When you have diabetes, no matter the reason (type 1, type 2, prediabetes, or gestational diabetes), your body can’t metabolize glucose as it should, leading to an excess of sugar in the blood. Too much blood sugar can lead to all sorts of health issues, including serious and life-threatening problems. Getting your blood sugar under control is priority one for diabetics.
You may suspect you have diabetes if you have one or more of the symptoms. These include:
If you exhibit any of these symptoms, it’s crucial that you schedule an appointment with Dr. Vincent R. C. Maribao. Testing for diabetes is relatively easy, and includes checking your urine and blood. We can provide you with answers and help you manage your diabetes.
Diabetes is a chronic condition, meaning it’s persistent and can last a long time. Although there are some lifestyle changes that impact type 2 diabetes, and prediabetes, such as weight loss and watching what you eat and drink, many who suffer with this condition must depend on medication and/or strict dietary changes to control their diabetes.
Failure to control your diabetes can lead to tragic and debilitating results. Here are 3 reasons you need to control your diabetes:
Your retina’s can be directly affected by diabetes. Blood vessels can become weak, and damaged, leading to a condition called diabetic retinopathy, a leading cause of blindness in people under 65. Diabetics are also at a higher risk for diseases of the eye, such as macular degeneration, glaucoma, and cataracts.
Most people are familiar with peripheral neuropathy and the threat it poses to diabetics. Nerves become damaged, affecting your arms, hands, legs, and feet. You develop a feeling of burning, stabbing, searing pain, leading to tingling, and numbness, weakness, and lack of coordination, sores that don’t heal, and infection that puts you at risk for amputation. Altogether a very unpleasant and unwanted result of uncontrolled diabetes.
There’s also another type of neuropathy that affects those with diabetes, autonomic neuropathy. This type of nerve damage can affect your organs causing digestive issues, incontinence, and a whole host of other unpleasant symptoms. Neuropathy, and the damage it causes, occurs in 60%-70% of diabetics, often irreversibly damaging the nerves.
Though this risk poses the most threat to those with type 2 diabetes, not controlling your blood sugar can take a major toll on your cardiovascular system. Those who fail to control their diabetes are up to four times more likely to die from heart disease.
Uncontrolled diabetes ups your risk for stroke one and a half times more than the average. Controlling your blood sugar, managing your weight, getting exercise, eating healthy, not smoking, and not drinking to excess can help prevent these desperately dire outcomes.
Stop playing games with your health and learn how to control your diabetes. If you’ve been diagnosed with diabetes, or prediabetes, schedule an appointment with Dr. Mirabao to find out where you stand. If you have one or more of the above symptoms, or are at risk due to obesity or family history, let us provide you with some answers.
If you’re in the St. Clair Shores area of Michigan, contact the office of Dr. Vincent R. C. Maribao today. Together we can manage your diabetes, so you can lead a full and productive life for many years to come.
