Maintain your blood glucose level
If a diabetic patient does not monitor his blood glucose levels properly and does not take medicines properly, he has a greater chance of damaging tissues. It is therefore of great importance to properly monitor and regulate the glucose levels.
Complications mainly occur in cells and tissues such as nerve cells and blood vessel cells. These tissues are not directly dependent on insulin for glucose uptake. A blood sugar level that is too high immediately leads to an increase in the glucose level in these tissues. This excess of glucose leads to organ damage in a number of ways:
Glucose can attach to all kinds of proteins. This creates insoluble and harmful ‘saccharification products’. Accumulations of intermediates, such as sorbitol, occur in the cell. This sets many chemical processes in motion. These eventually lead to damage to the organs.
The complications in a row
Disorders of the great arteries:
- Coronary artery narrowing: the opening of the vessels on the heart muscle becomes smaller, which can lead to a heart attack.
- Narrowing of the arteries to the head and brain: this can lead to strokes.
- Narrowing of the arteries to the legs: this can lead to thrombosis.
Damage to the small blood vessels and capillaries:
- Retinal disorders: this can lead to visual impairment or blindness (‘retinopathy’).
- Kidney involvement: this can lead to kidney failure, requiring dialysis or even a transplant (‘nephropathy’).
Damage to the nervous system and nerves (neuropathy):
- Complaints of numbness in the legs.
- Disorders of the nerves to internal organs.
- The heart: Dizziness on getting up.
- The stomach: impaired emptying of the stomach and bladder.
- The genitals: impotence.
Damage to connective and support tissues (the tissues that support the skin, for example):
- Stiffening of connective tissue: This can lead to stiff hands.
