COMPLICATIONS OF TYPE II DIABETES
Type 2 diabetes is a complex, insidious metabolic disease that slowly and silently destroys your body one day at a time. This silent killer destroys your organs one by one, by attacking and damaging the small capillaries and blood vessels that feed your heart, brain, feet, kidneys, and eyes - this is called microvascular disease. Diabetes accelerates the biological aging of the organs and tissues, but most of this aging is not painful or visible to the unsuspecting diabetic for years. As the disease progresses, the majority of diabetics develop two or more of the following complications:
- Additional weight (fat) gain, leading to low energy and fatigue, obesity
- High blood pressure, high cholesterol, and dehydration.
- Kidney disease (nephropathy), leading to kidney failure and dialysis.
- Eye disease (retinopathy), leading to blindness.
- Nerve damage (neuropathy), leading to amputation of a lower limb; and other nerve-related conditions.
- Gum (periodontal) disease, leading to the loss of teeth and other infections.
- Cardiovascular disease (due to high blood pressure, high homocysteine, thick blood), leading to a heart attack or stroke.
- A higher susceptibility to other infections and diseases due to an underlying mechanism of internal inflammation and a weakened immune system.
Like Oprah said during one of her TV shows about diabetes: "There's no such thing as a little sugar problem... this is a very serious problem in our country."
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