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- Long-term complications of diabetes develop gradually. The longer you have diabetes — and the less controlled your blood sugar — the higher the risk of complications.
- Eventually, diabetes complications may be disabling or even life-threatening.
- Possible complications include:
- Cardiovascular disease. Diabetes dramatically increases the risk of various cardiovascular problems, including coronary artery disease with chest pain (angina), heart attack, stroke and narrowing of arteries (atherosclerosis).
- If you have diabetes, you are more likely to have heart disease or stroke.
- Nerve damage (neuropathy).
- Excess sugar can injure the walls of the tiny blood vessels (capillaries) that nourish your nerves, especially in your legs.
- This can cause tingling, numbness, burning or pain that usually begins at the tips of the toes or fingers and gradually spreads upward.
- Left untreated, you could lose all sense of feeling in the affected limbs.
- Damage to the nerves related to digestion can cause problems with nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or constipation.
- For men, it may lead to erectile dysfunction.
- Kidney damage (nephropathy).
- The kidneys contain millions of tiny blood vessel clusters (glomeruli) that filter waste from your blood.
- Diabetes can damage this delicate filtering system.
- Severe damage can lead to kidney failure or irreversible end-stage kidney disease, which may require dialysis or a kidney transplant.
- Eye damage (retinopathy).
- Diabetes can damage the blood vessels of the retina (diabetic retinopathy), potentially leading to blindness.
- Diabetes also increases the risk of other serious vision conditions, such as cataracts and glaucoma.
- Foot damage.
- Nerve damage in the feet or poor blood flow to the feet increases the risk of various foot complications.
- Left untreated, cuts and blisters can develop serious infections, which often heal poorly.
- These infections may ultimately require toe, foot or leg amputation.
- Skin conditions.
- Diabetes may leave you more susceptible to skin problems, including bacterial and fungal infections.
- Hearing impairment.
- Hearing problems are more common in people with diabetes.
- Alzheimer’s disease.
- Type 2 diabetes may increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
- The poorer your blood sugar control, the greater the risk appears to be.
- Although there are theories as to how these disorders might be connected, none has yet been proved.
- Complications of gestational diabetes.
- Most women who have gestational diabetes deliver healthy babies.
- However, untreated or uncontrolled blood sugar levels can cause problems for you and your baby.
