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Diabetic complications - how do they work in general?

T

The Governor

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We had our family visit to the dentist this week, I dutifully mentioned my new status as one of the unclean ;)

The dentist checked my gums and said they were comletely fine, in exactly the same state as six months ago, so that's all good.

She was saying that often with diabetics, we get gum problems that fail to heal so get progressively worse.

When we got out, my wife asked me a question which I had to admit I didn't have a clue about, she wanted to know if the problems like poor healing are a result of poor blood control, or do we just generally suffer anyway regardless as a result of being a diabetic?

Does anyone know? And how does itapply that generally across all of our potential complications as well?
 
Hi'
I asked my dentist if diabetes leads to problems. His reply was that good control of blood sugars is the answer. He went on to say that diabetics eat a healthier diet than most people and so he could not see why a well controled diabetic who looked after their teeth was at risk .
Regards, Catherine.
 
If you have poor control, then this will increase the risk of infections and also it will increase the time everything takes to heal as well...

I hoe this helps...
 
Well, I would say I have good control on the whole and yet my gums are in a pretty bad way. Dentist is keeping an eye on things but she said it is common for diabetics to have gum problems.
 
Chocoholic

I'm not saying that if you've got gum problems that is must/have to be due to bad control as anybody can get gum problems....

Only that if you have bad control that you are at higher risk of infections being unhelpfull in any gum condition or other type of infection or healing times etc...


sorry....
 
Complications are largely a consequence of UNCONTROLLED diabetes.

There are a whole chain of factors, the BG itself is a good feeding ground for bacteria and fungi, central adiposity generates cytokines( inflammation) high BP and neuropathy can affect blood circulation etc.

http://www.bloodsugar101.com/

is one site with background information
 
I have met diabetics that have not been diabetic anywhere near as long as me, have much better control but have many more serious complications. ( Scary :cry: )

I do believe that the better your control the less likely you are to suffer along the way, but this CAN NOT possibly be the whole story !
 
ChezMorgan said:
I have met diabetics that have not been diabetic anywhere near as long as me, have much better control but have many more serious complications. ( Scary :cry: )

I do believe that the better your control the less likely you are to suffer along the way, but this CAN NOT possibly be the whole story !
Click to expand...

Don't forget they may have been undiagnosed diabetics for many years.

Agreed though it's not straightforward. My Type 1 uncle on ancient insulins had much better control than my mother's Type2 uncle, who was also on insulin but ended up with the amputations etc.

There are about half a dozen different damage pathways, and a lot of individual variation. To me it makes sense to do what you can to control the BG, BP and lipids and eat plenty of bioflavinoids and antioxidants to limit the damage as much as you can.
 
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