Diabetes, both type one and type two, can change the way you live your life. The human body is meant to convert food into energy, breaking it into its essential components. However, when you have diabetes, your body struggles to do this. The pancreas can no longer make insulin like it’s supposed to or process blood sugar. Read on to learn about the different ways that diabetes can change your life.
Your Diet
One of the ways that diabetes can noticeably affect your life is through food. Diabetes impairs your body’s ability to break down sugars and regulate glucose, so you’ll need to eat differently to compensate. That includes avoiding high-carb foods full of sugar and fat. In order to manage diabetes, you must be mindful of the food you’re putting into your body and how everything works with your blood sugar. Staying regulated and consistent is critical in keeping your body healthy and keeping your diabetes under control.
Diabetic Retinopathy
One way that diabetes can change your life is by leading to other conditions later in your life, such as diabetic retinopathy. It’s one of the more common eye diseases that ophthalmologists diagnose, and if left untreated, it can lead to vision loss and blindness. When you have diabetes, your body cannot control blood sugar, which can lead to blood vessel damage in the tissue behind the eyes. Early symptoms include:
- Difficulty perceiving colors
- Blurriness
- Dark areas of vision
- Floaters
If you have diabetes, it’s important to get your eyes checked regularly whether or not you have symptoms.
Multiple Complications
Diabetes isn’t one guest in your home—it’s a lot of people coming in at once, all under the same umbrella. Diabetes hurts your body and paves the way for other complications that, if not kept under control, can worsen. For example, one complication of diabetes is diabetic neuropathy or nerve damage. Over time, you may notice numbness in your hands or feet or even small burning sensations.
You should check these body parts regularly because this nerve damage can quickly lead to other problems like cracks and skin breakdown that can get infected and become even worse. These issues can lead to ulcers that damage the tissue and bone and can require amputation if untreated for too long.
Diabetes can change your life in multiple ways, and you must recognize this early. Some people develop diabetes later in life due to genetics and food choices. Others are simply born with the condition. Regardless of how it came to be a presence in your life, you must understand how the disease can change as you age and what you can do to prevent it from getting worse.
