Complications of Type 2 Diabetes
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Additional complications include the increased risk of cardiovascular disease that accompanies patients with type 2 diabetes such as heart attack and stroke. In order to prevent or delay these complications, it's critical to get the blood sugars under control as soon as possible, and that includes not only lifestyle modifications, working with a diabetes educator, a nutritionist, your health care provider team, it also needs to incorporate medications.
It's very important to have everybody who's involved in the care of the patient coming to those appointments. So if they depend on a spouse or a caregiver, having those people attend the appointments can really help the patients understand and manage their condition. Complications are best prevented. You have to be very aggressive in controlling the blood sugar to prevent those complications from developing, because once they develop, you can't turn back the clock. You can't move back along that spectrum. So making sure we do whatever we can to get the blood sugar under control, to control all the patient's other health problems, to prevent the development or delay the development of those complications is critical.
KEVIN PANTALONE
Type 2 diabetes is a condition where your body doesn't make enough insulin, and your body is resistant to the insulin that you are making. And as a result, your blood sugar elevates. If your blood sugar remains high for a longer period of time, that increases the risk of type 2 diabetes complications, some of which include retinal problems which can affect vision, kidney problems which can affect kidney function, and some patients will end up requiring dialysis, as well as nerve damage which can result in numbness, tingling in the distal feet or pain in the distal part of the extremities. Additional complications include the increased risk of cardiovascular disease that accompanies patients with type 2 diabetes such as heart attack and stroke. In order to prevent or delay these complications, it's critical to get the blood sugars under control as soon as possible, and that includes not only lifestyle modifications, working with a diabetes educator, a nutritionist, your health care provider team, it also needs to incorporate medications.
It's very important to have everybody who's involved in the care of the patient coming to those appointments. So if they depend on a spouse or a caregiver, having those people attend the appointments can really help the patients understand and manage their condition. Complications are best prevented. You have to be very aggressive in controlling the blood sugar to prevent those complications from developing, because once they develop, you can't turn back the clock. You can't move back along that spectrum. So making sure we do whatever we can to get the blood sugar under control, to control all the patient's other health problems, to prevent the development or delay the development of those complications is critical.
