Did you know that nearly 30 million people suffer from diabetes in the United States alone? While only 1.25 million of those people have type 1 diabetes – about 5-percent – the severity of complications that can develop from type 1 diabetes makes it just as, if not more dangerous than type 2 diabetes.
Type 1 diabetes is the result of your body’s own immune system mistakenly destroying the beta cells in the pancreas causing an inadequate production of the hormone that regulates glucose in the blood. While glucose is required by your body as a main source of energy for the cells that make up your muscles and other tissues, the buildup of glucose in your bloodstream instead of the absorption of glucose by your cells, as happens to type 1 diabetics, can result in potentially life-threatening complications.
Continue reading below to understand just how serious these complications can be and what you can do to manage or even avoid these complications in the first place.
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Short-Term Complications of Type 1 Diabetes
Over the course of having type 1 diabetes, if you don’t maintain a normal blood sugar level through the use of the hormone that allows your body to use glucose for energy, there are both short and long-term complications that can affect your nerves, heart, blood vessels, eyes, and kidney.