Is Diabetes a Fatal Condition?
How Threatening is Diabetes?
The only agenda that people tend to take seriously is death. Diabetes once ranked as the number 10 cause of deaths worldwide and now has moved up to number seven.
Untreated diabetic patients are prone to fatal chronic diseases that ultimately lead to death. According to World Health Organization, around 422 million adults were living with diabetes in 2014. The number had risen quite high from 108 million back in 1980. 3 decades led to 3 times increase in the total population suffering from diabetes.
High blood sugar levels are a reason for 3.6 million deaths in the world, and the number increases almost every year. Diabetes in the UK is an association working towards making diabetic awareness and research. Its key finding in 2010 stated that people who are suffering from the 2nd type of diabetes are likely to lose their life expectancy by about 9 to 10 years, which is a ground-breaking data that worsens the condition.
We see that the death rates are traumatic, but the hazardous health problems that diabetic patients have to live with cannot be underestimated.
The Adverse Effects of Diabetes
Hypoglycemia
The effects start with hypoglycemia, also known as low blood sugar in the body. It results in nausea, blackouts, lack of consciousness and many effects that hamper the normal body functioning. These events lead to irritability in the person’s behavior and cause mental stress.
Hypertension
Another fatal attachment that comes along with diabetes is Hypertension. According to The American Diabetes Association, out of all the adults diagnosed with diabetes 72% had blood pressure greater than 140/90 mm. Diabetes causes more sugar level in the blood leading to inflammation in the blood vessels.
It ultimately increases the blood pressure. Hypertension is not just physically fatal, but also has an element of mental illness with it.
Dyslipidemia
Dyslipidemia is also a major result of diabetes. It is a condition with an imbalance in plasma and cholesterol levels. American Diabetes Association suggests strongly that everyone must annually undergo the dyslipidemia testing.
Undiagnosed and untreated dyslipidemia can increase the cardiovascular problems for the patient and may even result in a stroke!
Cancer
Diabetes and some antidiabetic treatments can increase the risks of cancer which doesn’t need any introduction. The fatality of any cancer whether it is liver cancer, pancreatic cancer, breast cancer or rectum cancer, its fatality is self-explained.
American Cancer Society confirmed diabetes to be one the leading reasons for cancer; untreated diabetes to be precise.
Sleep Disorders
Sleep Disorders or sleep deprivation are common for the diabetics. The unusual irritable instincts due to high blood sugar cause improper sleep cycles and sleep apnea in particular. If one suffers from diabetes, he automatically has an 89% chance of sleep disorder. But if one suffers from regular sleep disorders or sleep apnea, there is a 23% chance of it being diabetes.
Loss of Vision
The American Diabetes Association registered more than 4.3 million cases of diabetic retinopathy in 2014. This disease is the damage caused to small blood vessels in retina because of high glucose levels in the blood. In the worst scenario, it can even lead to permanent loss of vision.
Also, in 2014 the primary reason for kidney failure was diabetes.
Diabetic Coma
A ‘diabetic coma’ is also one of the most terrifying effects of diabetes. It occurs when blood sugar levels become either too low or too high. The cells in one’s body require glucose to function. But with unstable blood sugar levels, the glucose requirement is unfulfilled.
Sometimes the excessive sugar in the blood causes hypertension which as a consequence makes us lightheaded and one may even lose consciousness. Diabetic coma is permanent in most cases.
Now the question is, whether the fatality is just about death! The above-listed effects of diabetes that the patient will have to live with are even more fatal. A diabetic condition involves both physical and mental problems that are very difficult to have in your life.
