Detailed Explanation of Diabetes Complications: The Harm High Blood Sugar Causes to Seven Major Organs

What are the complications of diabetes?

Diabetes is a metabolic disease that can cause metabolic disorders in various organs and tissues throughout the body. If it is not treated scientifically and promptly, it will lead to various acute and chronic complications. The main complications include:

Eye complications: Most patients with diabetes for more than 10 years will have varying degrees of retinopathy. Common complications include iritis, glaucoma, and cataracts. The risk of blindness due to diabetes is 25 times higher than in the general population.

Heart complications: High blood lipids and the deposition of hyaline degenerative substances in the inner lining of small and medium-sized blood vessels narrow the lumen of the small branches and capillaries of the coronary arteries, reducing blood flow, increasing blood viscosity, decreasing red blood cell deformability, and creating a hypercoagulable state. This makes them prone to small blood clots, leading to conditions such as cardiac enlargement, heart failure, arrhythmia, angina pectoris, and myocardial infarction. Diabetic patients are 2-3 times more likely to develop coronary heart disease than non-diabetic patients.

Infections: The hyperglycemic state in diabetic patients provides an ideal environment for bacterial growth and reproduction, inhibiting the phagocytic ability of white blood cells. This leads to decreased resistance to infection and weakened constitution, resulting in reduced organ function and weakened immunity, making them more susceptible to various infections. Common infections include urinary tract infections, respiratory infections, and skin infections.

Ketoacidosis: Diabetic ketoacidosis often occurs in untreated insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, when treatment is interrupted, or during stressful situations. Due to severe insulin deficiency in diabetic patients, fat breakdown is accelerated, producing large amounts of fatty acids. These fatty acids are oxidized in the liver, significantly increasing the concentration of ketone bodies in the blood. However, the utilization of ketone bodies by extrahepatic tissues is greatly reduced, leading to metabolic acidosis.

Diabetic Nephropathy: Diabetic nephropathy, also known as diabetic glomerulosclerosis, is a common and difficult-to-treat microvascular complication of diabetes and one of the leading causes of death in diabetic patients. Due to prolonged hyperglycemia, diabetic patients experience hardening of the renal microvessels and glomeruli, resulting in proteinuria. Further progression leads to elevated blood urea nitrogen and creatinine levels, eventually resulting in kidney failure. This condition is more common in elderly diabetic patients.

Diabetic foot: Diabetic foot is a condition caused by peripheral neuropathy, insufficient blood supply to the lower limbs, and bacterial infection, resulting in foot pain, deep skin ulcers, and gangrene. Diabetic patients are 17 times more likely to develop foot gangrene than non-diabetic patients.

Neuropathy: In a hyperglycemic state, sorbitol accumulates in nerve cells and myelin sheaths, while inositol levels decrease, causing damage to nerve cells and nerve fibers. Clinical manifestations include spontaneous pain in the limbs, numbness, or decreased sensation. Some patients may experience localized muscle weakness and atrophy. Autonomic dysfunction manifests as diarrhea, constipation, urinary retention, and impotence.