Impacts, Prevention, and Treatment of Diabetes
Besides complications in diabetes being long-term, the impacts can be life-threatening. Some of the difficulties caused by diabetes include heart and blood vessel disease. Diabetes raises the danger of heart stroke, increased blood pressure, and blood vessels narrowing, which is also known as atherosclerosis. It also causes nerve damage, also referred to as neuropathy. Increased sugar levels in the body can cause tingling, burning, or numbness that usually starts from fingertips or toes, and after that spread to other parts of the body (American Diabetes Association, 2018). The affected limbs sometimes lose the sense of feeling. When the nerves that control digestion are damaged, problems such as vomiting, constipation, and nausea arises. Erectile dysfunction is also prevalent for men who have diabetes.
The damage of kidney impacts to kidney failure or the irreversible end-stage kidney problem may require a kidney transplant or kidney dialysis transplant. When diabetes disease, if left untreated, blisters and wounds can be a severe infection that takes long to heal or heal poorly. The eye damage introduces eye diseases like glaucoma, which might damage retina blood vessels, causing blindness. People with sugar diseases are also exposed to skin diseases such as fungal and bacterial infections.
The prevention of diabetes disease includes healthy lifestyle choices such as eating nutritious foods with low levels of calories and fat and high fiber content. Eating vegetables, fruits, and whole grains also reduce the risk of diabetes. Taking physical activities such as jogging, walking daily, bicycle ride, and swimming minimizes risk. Maintaining a healthy body range, and avoiding being sedentary for extended periods also prevents diabetes disease risk.
Diabetes type 1 disease can be treated by taking insulin, frequent and consistent monitoring of sugar levels in the blood, eating healthy foods, including fats, proteins, and carbohydrates in the diet, and regular exercise (Halban et al., 2014). Diabetes type 2 can be treated to acquire their target sugar levels through practice and a healthy diet alone, but sometimes insulin therapy is required.
References
American Diabetes Association. (2018). 2. Classification and diagnosis of diabetes: standards of medical care in diabetes—2018. Diabetes care, 41(Supplement 1), S13-S27.
Halban, P. A., Polonsky, K. S., Bowden, D. W., Hawkins, M. A., Ling, C., Mather, K. J., … & Weir, G. C. (2014). β-cell failure in type 2 diabetes: postulated mechanisms and prospects for prevention and treatment. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 99(6), 1983-1992.
