Another common complication of diabetes is neuropathy, damage to the nerves of the body.

More than 70 percent of all people who have had diabetes for more than 15 years have some form of nerve damage. Young people do not usually have neuropathy, but may develop it later. Type 2 diabetics, who are diagnosed with diabetes later in life, may have nerve damage soon after diagnosis.

nerves in various parts of the body may be affected by diabetes. The autonomic nerves help to regulate the speed of your heartbeat, your blood pressure, and your perspiration. They also help with the control of your bladder, your digestive system, and your sex organs. In the diabetic, damage to the autonomic nerves may result in diarrhea or constipation. It may make it difficult to pass all the urine stored in the bladder, which may result in urinary infection. Autonomic neuropathy can lead to postural hypotension, which simply means that the blood pressure drops when you stand up quickly, making you feel dizzy or giddy.

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Many of the complications of diabetes occur because of the weakening of the walls of the small blood vessels. Kidney disease called diabetic nephropathy is another one of those diseases.

The kidneys are the policemen on round the clock duty, ready to remove any harmful wastes and chemicals from the blood vessels that act as filters. They produce urine, which is made of the body’s extra water and all of the wastes.

The kidneys should function as good filters throughout a person’s lifetime. However, high blood sugar levels, high blood pressure and infections can all damage the capillaries so that they unable to filter as well as they should. Because diabetics are likely to develop blood vessel damage, they are 18 times more likely to have serious kidney damage than nondiabetics are. Put more simply, one diabetic in every 10 will likely develop kidney disease.

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One of the common complications of diabetes is an eye problem called retinopathy. The retina is like the body’s camera, forming the visual picture of what we see.

In retinopathy the tiny blood carrying capillaries in the eyes become damaged. Because the capillary walls are weak, they bulge, they leak, and sometimes they even burst and bleed. This fluid may collect and cause swelling in the retina. This alone does not usually interfere with a person’s vision.

In some people, however, the condition becomes much worse, as they get what is called proliferative retinopathy. As some capillaries become blocked, new capillaries begin to form in and around the retina. In proliferative retinopathy, the capillaries proliferate, or push in to the vitreous, the fluid filled center of the eye. There they may break and cause bleeding which result in blindness.

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