{"id":34382,"date":"2013-11-03T09:06:20","date_gmt":"2013-11-03T14:06:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=34382"},"modified":"2015-12-27T15:43:08","modified_gmt":"2015-12-27T20:43:08","slug":"health-ills-that-can-come-with-years-of-diabetes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=34382","title":{"rendered":"Health Ills That Can Come With Years of Diabetes"},"content":{"rendered":"

November is Diabetes Month. This month you’ll hear more about\u00a0diabetes symptoms<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0risk factors\u00a0than you will all year.<\/p>\n

But there’s something you won’t hear about. The health challenges those of us who’ve lived with diabetes for decades may face. There’s little research on it; not so long ago people died before they could live that long with diabetes.<\/p>\n

But for those of us who will have lived much of our lives with diabetes — those who got, and will yet get, Type 1 diabetes as a child, teen or young adult, and younger adults and children now getting Type 2 diabetes — there are many health ills (comorbidities<\/a>) that can come with long-duration diabetes. These comorbidities are in addition to the complications we often hear associated with diabetes: heart disease, kidney disease, amputation, blindness, neuropathy and retinopathy.<\/p>\n

Comorbidities with long-term diabetes<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Certified Diabetes Educator\u00a0Claire Blum<\/a>\u00a0says the following comorbidities — muscle and joint pain, carpal tunnel, trigger fingers, high blood pressure, a deformity of your foot called Charcot’s foot, nerve and thyroid problems, hearing loss, frozen shoulder, loss of flexibility and increase of rigidity and celiac disease — occur with greater frequency in people who’ve had diabetes 25 to 35+ years.<\/p>\n

What happens is, living with diabetes, your body experiences greater and more frequent inflammation. This is largely due to impaired immunity, impaired metabolism of carbohydrates and fats, hormonal imbalances and the metabolic stress associated with these disorders. These are in part caused by elevated blood sugar levels and the rate and speed at which blood sugar rises and falls.<\/p>\n

As a result, the comorbidities above are more typically seen in people with diabetes, and at an earlier age.<\/p>\n

Blum says traditional diabetes therapies, like checking your blood sugar, taking your medicine and counting carbohydrate and fat grams, should be considered only part of a treatment plan for staying healthy. “We need to see our body,” says Blum, “as a whole system and do what supports it as a system.”<\/p>\n

What to do now to stay healthier over time<\/strong><\/p>\n