Vascular means vessel or arteries and veins. Diabetes effects small and large vessels alike which leads to its long term complications.
Macrovascular or big vessels complications include:
- Stroke and Heart Disease: Diabetes and heart disease often go hand in hand. Heart disease is very common and serious complication. If you have diabetes, you’re twice as likely to have heart disease than someone who doesn’t have diabetes—and at a younger age. The longer you have diabetes, the more likely you are to have heart disease. People with diabetes are also more likely to have other conditions that raise the risk for heart disease:
- High blood pressure increases the force of blood through your arteries and can damage artery walls. Having both high blood pressure and diabetes can greatly increase your risk for heart disease.
- Too much LDL (“bad”) cholesterol in your bloodstream can form plaque on damaged artery walls.
- High triglycerides (a type of fat in your blood) and low HDL (“good”) cholesterol or high LDL cholesterol is thought to contribute to hardening of the arteries.
Microvascular or small vessel complications include:
- Retinopathy (Damage to eyesight): Small vessels of the retina are damaged and may lead to blindness if left untreated.
- Nephropathy (Kidney damage): May be seen in 1 in 4 diabetes patients after 10 years of disease. Chronic kidney failure requiring dialysis and even transplant may occur.
- Neuropathy (Damage to nerves of hand and foot): Leads to loss of sensation in foot and hand which can cause non-healing ulcers and even gangrene.
Damage to small and bigger vessels by diabetes leads to its long-term complications. The longer you have diabetes, the more likely you are to have them. Heart disease, stroke, damage to eye, kidney and nerves are should be enough to motivate you to keep your diabetes under control.
These factors can also raise your risk for long term complications:
- Smoking
- Being overweight or having obesity
- Not getting enough physical activity
- Eating a diet high in saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, and sodium (salt)
- Drinking too much alcohol
डायबिटीज वो नासूर है,
जो खोखला करके अन्दर से,
दुश्मनों को बुलावा देता है…||
-doc2poet
This post is a part of #BlogchatterA2Z 2023
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