There are two consequences of diabetes that can have an adverse effect on your extremities, mainly your feet. The first of these is damage to your nerves. The main problem with nerve damage is that nervous tissue does not regenerate. That means that severe nerve damage, if it involves dead or severed nerves, cannot be reversed. If the nerves in your feet or hands get damaged, you will lose sensitivity. You may have a hard time noticing if your feet are hurt or if they are wounded in any way. A slight injury to your feet or hands could get worse and worse without you even feeling the problem. The second consequence from diabetes that affects your extremities is damaged blood vessels, or peripheral vascular disorders. If there is not enough blood reaching every part of your extremities, you may find that injuries take much longer to heal.

These two problems can interact to result in serious damage to your feet. For example, if you make it a habit of wearing ill-fitting shoes, you may develop a blister. Because of the nerve damage from diabetes, you will not feel that blister. This blister may then become infected, and the higher levels of glucose in your blood also help nourish the germs in the wound that worsen infection. The poor blood flow to your foot will make the infection take longer to heal which may result in the tissue dying and becoming gangrenous. Amputation may be necessary, all of which could have been prevented by wearing the right shoes.

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Today there are two main ways of classifying diabetes. The first one, corresponding to the World Health Organization, only recognizes three types of diabetes: type 1, type 2 and gestational diabetes. The second classification was established by the ADA (American Diabetes Association) in 1997 and classifies diabetes mellitus into four different types: type 1 diabetes mellitus, type 2 diabetes mellitus, gestational diabetes, and additional types of diabetes mellitus.

Type 1 diabetes mellitus, or autoimmune diabetes, was previously known as insulin dependent or juvenile diabetes. It is mostly present in younger people, although it can appear at any time of life. It is characterized by no insulin production due to the autoimmune destruction of the beta cells in the pancreas islets by T.8 cells. It is usually diagnosed when the individual is around 30 years old and it affects nearly five million people around the world, with the highest percentage of them in North America and in Western Europe. The different genetic predispositions in a region’s general population can affect the percentage of people afflicted by this kind of diabetes.

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Diabetes has all sorts of associated conditions and it seems the list gets longer every day. Heart and kidney disease, trouble with your feet, trouble with your eyes, it is a difficult part of living with diabetes, the fact that it can affect so much of your body. The gums, teeth and mouth in general are no exception. Periodontitis, an acute inflammation of the gums, is a severe disease. In its more advanced stages, it can lead to infections and the gums peeling away from the teeth. The infection can even affect the bones in which the teeth are embedded, if nothing is done about it.

There is a link between diabetes and periodontitis and other kinds of gum disease. Research based on a group of diabetic Americans, has shown that an abnormally high number of them have gum disease and other oral health problems. Not only that, but they also have periodontitis and gingivitis (a less severe gum disease) which can also worsen diabetes. It is thought that the relationship works both ways because people with diabetes cannot fight bacterial infection as effectively and diabetics with gum disease will have a harder time maintaining their blood glucose at the proper levels.

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Almost a third of people who are diabetic don’t know that they are diabetic, due to the fact that they haven’t done tests either at home or with a doctor. They don’t know when they should be tested or the signs and symptoms of diabetes. If you don’t get tested and treated as soon as you develop diabetes then you are at risk of developing complications down the road. For people with Type 2 diabetes, research has shown that lifestyle changes can prevent or delay the disease, which is why it is important to know the risks, symptoms and causes of diabetes and most importantly, when to get tested.  If you go to your doctor they can give you an idea if you might be at risk of diabetes based on your family history (have any of your family members had diabetes?); weight (are you overweight or obese?); as well as a few other factors.

Some of the symptoms of Type 2 diabetes include thirst (are you finding yourself becoming more and more thirsty?); fatigue (are you getting more tired as the day goes on, especially after eating a meal?); increased urination (are you going to more often and going more during the night as well?); increased hunger (finding that you’re still hungry after you have eaten a huge dinner?). These symptoms are just as few of the symptoms and tell-tale signs that you might be diabetic. If you are experiencing any or all of the symptoms stated above then you should get to your doctor so that they can test you to see if you have, or are starting to get, diabetes. Most people don’t notice that they have diabetes until complications occur on a regular basis.

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