Diabetes is one of the most prevalent metabolic disorders of today's times. Right from your heart to your kidneys to your eyes and nerves, directly or indirectly, diabetes affects many parts of your body. As a result, the effects of diabetes have the potential to create short-term as well as long-term, life-threatening consequences.
Examples of such dangerous consequences of diabetes include heart attack, stroke, skin infections, high blood pressure, complete loss of vision, etc.
Did you know:
- Deaths due to diabetes increased significantly by 3% between the years 2000 and 2019.
- Among these, almost 2 million deaths happened as a result of diabetic nephropathy (kidney-related diabetic complication) and other long-term diabetes effects on body. 1
- Apart from this, the most concerning fact is that 1 in every 3 adults is suffering from prediabetes. And the worst part is, 99% of them don't even know about it. 2
Henceforth, there are many effects of diabetes on the body. That is why taking an online blood test at home can help you spot and eliminate the warning signs and symptoms of diabetes on time.
How Does Diabetes Develop, and What Exactly Happens in It?
Your body produces a hormone called insulin to regulate blood sugar levels. What happens in diabetes is that—
- Either the body produces an insufficient amount of insulin
- Or, the insulin that is produced is not being effectively utilised
In either of the above cases, the negative effects of diabetes start becoming visible.
Symptoms that are generally observed include the following—
- Blurry vision
- Unintentional weight loss
- Increased tiredness
- Frequent thirst
- Frequent urination
Therefore, if you are worried about having prediabetes, you can book a sugar test at home to get the confirmation.
Diabetes Affects Which Part of The Body?
If you're wondering what level of blood sugar is dangerous, here is what you need to know: Blood sugar levels, whether high or low, can both be dangerous to your long-term health.
Likewise, diabetes affects the body in numerous ways. The main body parts that get affected because of diabetes include the following—
- Blood vessels
- Eyes
- Kidneys
- Feet
- Nerves
Other effects of diabetes on the body include problems with—
- Digestive system
- Skin
- Sexual organs
- Teeth and gums
- Immune system 3
How Does Diabetes Affect Different Body Systems?
The most disheartening fact is that diabetes can increase your risk of kidney failure and heart attack. Moreover, it also affects your digestion, emotional responses, vision, bones, muscles, and skin. We have mentioned more about these effects of diabetes on the body in detail in the below sections.
1. Cardiovascular System (heart disease and stroke)
The cardiovascular system comprises your heart and associated blood vessels. As already mentioned before, when you have diabetes, your chances of getting a heart attack increase significantly.
Now, you might be wondering what exactly happens in diabetes that causes a heart attack. So, here is a quick overview of the effects of diabetes on your heart—
- High blood sugar damages your blood vessels.
- Because of insulin dysfunction, your body is not able to completely and quickly break down all the sugar that it takes.
- When this happens, the sugar keeps on building up in your blood.
- This constant buildup eventually leads to the formation of blockages that create problems for your heart-related blood vessels to regulate properly.
- Ultimately, when your blood vessels are blocked, oxygen and nutrients are not able to pass easily from them.
- If this continues for a long duration, a heart attack happens.
However, high blood sugar is not always the only cause of heart attack. There can be other causes that are equally harmful. These include—
- High cholesterol
- High blood pressure
Therefore, a heart attack is one of the most life-threatening consequences of diabetes. 4
2. Nervous System
Your nerves are responsible for carrying messages throughout your body and signalling your brain to take action. Thus, they have direct control over how you react to any situation, whether externally or internally. It applies to almost every reaction that your body has, such as—
- What you see
- What you hear
- How you feel
- The way you move
- An increase or decrease in your heart rate
- Your breathing mechanism
In diabetes, your nerves get damaged. Because of this, the whole nervous system starts malfunctioning. Also called diabetic neuropathy, this damage to the nervous system is one of the most serious adverse effects of diabetes since it affects many parts of the body like—
Diabetic neuropathy can further be categorised into the following 4 types. Remember that a person can have one or a combination of any of these types— 5
- Diabetic peripheral neuropathy (external organ-related): Results in negative effects of diabetes on body parts like feet, legs, hands and arms.
- Diabetic sensory neuropathy (sensation-related): It affects sensations such as those related to identifying smells, seeing objects, and perceiving other feelings.
- Diabetic autonomic neuropathy (internal organ related): This type of neuropathy affects bodily functions that you don't have control over. Examples include gastric emptying, heart rate, urination, and sweating mechanism.
- Diabetic motor neuropathy (movement-related): It happens as a result of the effect of diabetes on your movement. In diabetic motor neuropathy, you might find difficulties doing regular everyday tasks like buttoning up a shirt.
3. Renal System (Kidney and Associated Organs)
Also called diabetic nephropathy, the serious consequences of diabetes on your kidneys have the potential to cause diabetic kidney disease (DKD). DKD can ultimately lead to kidney failure. This happens, especially in type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
Here is what happens in diabetes-related kidney disease—
Your kidneys' filtering system gets compromised as an after-effect of diabetes. However, this does not happen overnight; symptoms develop slowly and only become visible in the later stages.
The common symptoms of diabetic nephropathy include—
- Extremely high blood pressure levels. Blood pressure levels are so high that they are hard to control. The medical term for this is hypertension.
- Foamy urine
- Confusion or lack of focus
- Swelling and itchiness (especially in ankles, hands, feet and eyes)
- Difficulty in thinking clearly
- Losing appetite (not having the mood to eat anything)
- Shortness of breath
- Tiredness
- Nausea and vomiting 6
4. Eyes
After heart and kidney disease, vision loss (partial or complete) is another disastrous effect of diabetes on your body.
In the initial stages, it might appear completely harmless (because you only have blurry vision, which might seem normal). However, if your diabetes is not controlled timely, it can start causing problems with your normal day-to-day life.
This is because what happens in diabetes is that, due to high blood sugar, the eye lens swells. This swelling hampers your ability to see things clearly, leading to problems with vision. 7
Here are some examples of such problems—
- Blurry vision
- Cataracts
- Glaucoma
- Diabetic retinopathy
Among these, diabetes-related retinopathy is one of the most high-risk consequences of diabetes, as it can cause complete blindness. It harms the small blood vessels present in the retina of your eyes and comes out as an after-effect of high blood sugar levels (hyperglycaemia)
Therefore, your eyes are one part of the body that diabetes can affect very severely.
5. Musculoskeletal System
Along with internal organs, diabetes also affects other body parts, such as your muscles and bones.
Muscles
The negative effects of diabetes on your muscles include—
- Tiredness: People with diabetes get tired very easily, even with light muscle activity.
- Decreased muscle strength: The strength of your muscles tends to decrease over time because of high sugar levels in your blood. 8
- Reduced muscle mass: A loss of muscle mass is a side effect of diabetes on the body that can hamper your daily activities.
These muscle-related diabetes effects happen because of insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is the situation in which your body's cells do not respond sufficiently to the insulin secreted by it. As a result, your muscles have to face the consequences due to diabetes. 9
Bones
Your bones form the structure of your body. That is why when diabetes affects this part of the body, there can be a large number of adverse effects, ranging from movement problems to body weakness.
Likewise, bone damage due to diabetes is generally caused by the following factors—
- Nerve damage (diabetic neuropathy)
- Arterial disease (a condition in which blockages are formed in your arteries, leading to changes in blood pressure levels)
- Obesity (unhealthy weight gain) 10
These can lead to the following consequences of diabetes—
- Charcot joint
- Limited joint movements
- Osteoporosis (bone weakness which increases the chances of suffering from easy bone breakage)
- Osteoarthritis (pain and swelling in the joints)
- DISH (diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis)
- Dupuytren's contracture
- Frozen shoulder
6. Skin And Soft Tissues
While diabetes has a lot of negative effects on the internal organs of your body, it is equally harmful to your skin and associated soft tissues.
Amidst other serious consequences of diabetes, itching skin is usually the first symptom observed. The condition is medically termed pruritus, and it happens to your skin in diabetes because of the following reasons—
- Dry skin
- Yeast infections
- Poor blood flow
When itching happens because of poor blood flow, it usually starts from your feet and spreads to your lower legs.
Following these, you might go through the following effects of diabetes on your skin—
- Bacterial infections: Infections that arise from staphylococcus bacteria are the most common skin issue observed in people who have poorly controlled diabetes. Antibiotic pills are a good solution.
- Fungal infections: These usually happen on the genitals, thighs, stomach, between the toes, chest, scalp, nails, etc)
- Acanthosis nigricans: It is more common in people who have type 2 diabetes and leads to the darkening and thickening of the skin.
- Vitiligo: Generally seen in type 1 diabetes, vitiligo is a skin disorder that causes changes in skin colour throughout different body parts.
- Diabetic dermopathy (also called shin spots): When it comes to skin, shin spots are the most harmless effects of diabetes. This is because they are not only painless but also do not cause itching or burning of the skin. 11
7. Digestive System
Hyperglycaemia, or high blood sugar, is one of the prominent effects of diabetes, which becomes the root cause of a lot of complications. Likewise, apart from vision loss, heart disease, and sudden and abnormal blood pressure changes, diabetes also affects the body parts responsible for digestion.
Improper gastric emptying, called gastroparesis, is one such diabetes effect. What happens in this condition is that—
- The muscles which are responsible for digestion become weak as a result of nerve damage (diabetic neuropathy)
- Consequently, there is a delay in the absorption of food. This can lead to malnutrition if not treated in a timely manner. 12
Consequences Of Diabetes
For anyone wondering if diabetes is hereditary, the answer is yes, diabetes is hereditary, but not all the time. Only type 1 diabetes is hereditary and is often observed in children and young people. 13
Other diabetes types (type 2 diabetes and gestational diabetes) often develop with time and can have the below-mentioned consequences.
1. Short-Term Consequences
The effect of diabetes on your body produces many complications. These complications can be categorised into 2 types: short-term and long-term complications.
Here is a list of the short-term consequences of diabetes (or short-term complications) —
- Blurry vision
- Itching skin
- Weekend immunity
- Constipation
- Watery bowel movements
- Increased risk of catching infections
2. Long-Term Consequences
Here is a list of the long-term consequences of diabetes (or long-term complications) —
- Complete or partial vision loss. Eyesight becomes so weak that you might have blurry vision. Over the years, it can convert into blindness.
- Hypertension (unhealthy elevated blood pressure levels). It is commonly called high BP.
- Sexual dysfunction
- Heart attack
- Kidney failure
- Extreme mental health issues (depression)
- Increased risk of dementia
- Problems in pregnancy (in the case of women)
- Osteoporosis 14
So, to avoid these consequences of diabetes, it is essential to get your sugar levels checked regularly. Regular monitoring of your current health status can help you understand the possibility of complications.
Likewise, here is a list of lab tests for diabetes patients—
Glucose Challenge Test 15
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