Daisy Care Medical - A Common Problem in Diabetics

Do not mess with diabetes! It is a nasty illness and will gradually and slowly suck the life out of you and contribute to a miserable existence.
This degenerative disease can damage many of the body systems leading to such serious medical complications as

heart disease (heart attack, stroke)
blindness (due to retinopathy)
kidney damage
impotence in men
amputations from gangrene and/or from damage to nerves (neuropathy).

Complications of diabetes - the third leading cause of death in the United States - are associated with one-third of the heart attacks and two-thirds of the strokes.
Diabetics more often have cataracts, or clouding of the lens of the eye. In addition, they may develop glaucoma, or an increased pressure within the eye. Finally, if the blood supply to the nerve layer of the eye (retina) is affected, the abnormal blood vessels on the surface of the retina may leak causing bleeding in the eye leading to blindness.
Nowadays, the main goal for diabetics is to avoid or minimize chronic diabetic complications, usually of toes and feet. In fact, severe damage to the feet is one of the greatest threats posed by diabetes.
As many as 50 percent of people with diabetes have a narrowing of the arteries supplying blood to the legs - a condition called peripheral vascular disease (PVD), a gradual buildup of fatty deposits on the walls of the circulatory system.
As deposits, called atherosclerotic plaque, begin to clog the small vessels near the periphery of the system, tissues in the legs and feet can become starved for blood.

Diabetic dry foot gangrene (black toe). If the blood vessels become totally blocked, then the part of the body supplies by those blood vessels dies and gangrene occurs.

Deprived of nutrients, oxygen, and germ-fighting blood cells, they become vulnerable to infection and ulceration.

If the blood vessels to a portion of the legs or, more commonly, part of the feet become totally blocked, then the part of the body supplied by those blood vessels dies and gangrene occurs.
In the United States, approximately 25 percent of people with diabetes - over five million - will develop foot problems and 6 to 10 percent - 300.000 - 500.000 - will undergo a foot or leg amputation. A lot of people with diabetes who need amputations are smokers.
A "bad leg" is a common, if not the most common, cause of hospital admissions for diabetic patients over age 40. Diabetics spend more time in the hospital for foot complications than for all other aspects of their disease combined.