Living With Diabetic Complications (What?)

I used to think that since I had Diabetes the medication would take care of it all.  Boy was I sadly mistaken.  I was diagnosed in 2007 when I got sick after work and began to vomit and just feel generally ill.  Needless to say, I took myself to the hospital and found out that day that I was probably Diabetic and was told to contact my doctor right away and get a thurough set of testings.  Not even a week later and I was given the diagnosis.  I was started on Metformin and that was the minimum amount.  Since that time I have had very few days when my Diabetes was under controll.  I have always felt I was good at taking care of myself dealing with my Diabetes, but why then am I having the difficulties I am having with these Diabetic Complications.  In 2010 I had a mild heart attack, after going to the doctors I was told that it damaged my kidneys and my liver.  I didnt understand how could that happen?  I was always very active and I didnt eat alot of sweets, so what was causing all these issues with my health.  I began to learn more by understanding the disease of Diabetes.  How it affects the Kidneys, Liver, Heart and Eyes, but also the biggest organ we own our Skin, then less not forget our nerves. 

Diabetic Neuropathy is when we have damage to our nerves from excess high glucose levels and it actually damages the endings of the nerves and the blood vessels that supply blood to the nerves has thinning walls from the glucose as well. Diabetic Neuropathy what causes it.  I have had issues with that off and on throughout my journey with Diabetes.  It can be quite painful and it seems to happen at night most of the time.  I was given different types of medications to help with it and currently take  numerous supplements and Gabapentin.  Each doctor deals with these issues according to the patient.  I have noticed that Natural Oils help as well I currently use them from a family member of mine who deals in Medicinal Oils Daelene Burris Oils Instructor/Business Owner.  It does help my pain almost immediately.  Kidneys are controlled by medication for High Blood pressure and are always evaluated in an every three month blood test that is done to see how the functions are.  This is a little more complicated to explain how this works but basically when you have Diabetes abnormality in carbohydrate metabolism that leads to persistently high levels of blood glucose and the coexisting high levels of fat in the blood cant be filtered correctly and the protiens are leaked from your kidneys into the urine causing damage.  How Diabetes affects the Kidneys  Heart issues from Diabetes happen when lipids clog, harden and narrow the blood vessel walls, leading to what is called atherosclerosis. How Diabetes Affects the Heart  Along with your Kineys, Heart, your liver is often affected as well. How does Diabetes affect the LiverInsulin is metabolized in the liver, where it promotes the production of glycogen, protein, cholesterol, and triglycerides and stimulates the formation of low density lipoproteins, or LDL, which transport cholesterol into the arteries. How Diabetes affects the Liver  Usually for both the Liver and Kidneys the Doctor prescribes Cholesterol Medications and High Blood pressure Medications such as, statins and Some high blood pressure medication such as Lisinopril. The key is excersize as well since that also helps regulate the sugar level or gluclose level and insulin your body produces.  Now I have had the opportunity to realize it also affects the Mind and our Brains.  Diabetes affects the Brain because of the lack of sugars or the excessive amounts of sugars in the blood, (Better known as Gluclose), they believe that Dementia and also Alzhiemers is more prevelent in type 2 Diabetics.  How the Brain is affected by Diabetes  All I know is that many times it affects most or a majority of your body.  It has deffinantly affected mine.  I am hoping by sharing information and stories we can figure out some things together.  I think we have hope and as long as we as Diabetics or caretakers of Diabetics stay connected we can get through this together.  If you have questions or would like information and if you have a story you would like to share with me feel free, we can inspire one another to care for ourselves and others much better working side by side to make changes in our lives.  Email me @ diabetic.day2013@gmail.com.