Learn how to live healthy with diabetes - What causes complications in diabetes?
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Kathy Reily: Hello! I am Kathy Reily, Coordinator of the Diabetes Program at Prince William Hospital in Manassas, Virginia, and now we're going to talk about preventing the complications of diabetes. Male Speaker: What causes complications in diabetes? Kathy Reily: The complications of diabetes is caused by the extra sugar, the elevated sugar that's in the bloodstream. Overtime, the extra sugar actually starts to damage the lining of the blood vessels. Remember, the extra sugar is found in every single blood vessel of the body. So the lining of the blood vessel becomes damaged. Eventually, the blood vessel becomes damaged and then the organ that the blood vessel is feeding becomes damaged as well. If there is too much glucose in the vessels behind the eye, the blood vessels of the eye become damaged and the eye will have complications. Same thing will happen with the blood vessels in the kidney, leading to the kidney, the blood vessels for our nerves, the cardiac system and generally that is the main problem with the diabetes complications.