Diabetes Complications, The Silent Killer.

The complications from diabetes can have devastating effects on your health, if proper care of ones health is not maintained.

Heart Disease

Diabetes is well known for being the cause of heart related problems. Large amounts of sugar in the blood can cause a significant amount of damage to a body's systems- especially blood vessels.

Unhealthy lifestyles coupled with diabetes can up the chances of complications and lead to other health problems such as coronary heart disease and stroke.

Middle aged persons with Type 2 diabetes have been shown to have as much chance of having a heart attack as the person who does not have diabetes at all but has had at least one heart attack. Hardening of the arteries, or atherosclerosis, is always a prescription for a possible heart attack.

Take a diabetic with high cholesterol and the risk becomes that much greater. Even further, diabetics who have had one heart attack are very much at risk for another.

Women with diabetes are much more likely to develop some sort of heart disease than women without the disease.

Warning signs of a heart attack are:

- Chest pain spreading to shoulders, neck or arms.
- Chest pressure, tightness, burning or a heavy feeling in the chest.
- Irregular heart rate
- Impending doom feeling.
- Light headedness.
- Fainting, nausea, sweating or shortness of breath.
-Sweaty skin.
- Paleness
- Anxiety or nervousness

Stroke

The brain is very much dependent on oxygen to keep it alive. The brain needs a network of blood vessels in which to pump oxygen rich blood. Through this network of vessels will the vital parts of the brain been feed. Without that the brain tissues will die.

Diabetics are three times more likely to have a stroke than those who does not have the disease. As diabetes is more common in the African American community, this accounts for the reason that they suffer a sizeable amount of the population's strokes every year.

Ischeamic stroke is characterized by an insufficient flow of blood and oxygen to the brain tissues and is the most prevalent type of stroke for those with diabetes. The risk for this type of stroke is peaking for younger men and older women.

A stroke is an emergency situation that requires immediate medical intervention and warrants a trip to the emergency room of a hospital. The sooner the stroke victim receives medical care, the sooner any damage can be assessed and the condition stabilized.

Reference: http://www.thediabetesdoc.com