Although blindness is a serious complication of diabetes, you can lower your chances of
going blind if you: control your blood pressure and glucose levels keep active and
exercise try to maintain an ideal body weight don’t smoke/give up smoking
No. As a diabetic you are advised to get a flu and pneumonia shot, because any illness
can affect your blood glucose control which can lead to ketoacidosis (not enough insulin
in your body)and a possible hospital stay. Type 1 diabetics are more at risk of
ketoacidosis than Type 2's depending on how much insulin the diabetic’s body actually
makes.
Fact is, complications are not inevitable. Controlling your blood sugars, blood pressure
and blood lipids will help protect your health. Keep up to date on your regular screening
tests and make any changes needed early so you can be successful at keeping
complications away.
Although diabetes isn’t curable, it can be controlled when properly managed. A diabetic
needs to manage meals, exercise and their medications. With proper guidance, a
diabetic prevent and/or minimize serious complications. For Type 1 diabetics, this can be
harder to achieve. Many factors, including hormone changes, stress, medications,
illnesses and infections, growing periods and fatigue can all cause a persons blood
glucose to remain out of control no matter what they eat. Teenagers are very prone to
this because of all the changes that they go through. Many Type 1's are also termed
"brittle." This means that althought they work hard for tight control, with a good diet and
taking medications on a regular basis, their blood glucose still has rapid fluctuations.
