Physician Warnings about Diabetes Control

QUESTION: I suffer from diabetes and visit my physician regularly. He
constantly scolds me and warns me that if I don't control things better, the
complications of diabetes will get me. I've a little knowledge of these
problems, but are they really as bad as my doctor makes them out to be?
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ANSWER: I think you want me to reassure you, so that you may continue to take
some of the admonitions of your physician lightly. I can't do that in good
conscience, for all the statistics reveal that the results of poorly
controlled diabetes are frightening indeed. Here are just a few from some
recent publications and research. Patients that suffer from diabetes are more
than twice as likely to suffer from coronary artery disease than the general
population. More than half of all amputations that are not the result of
injury are in diabetic patients. Kidney disease is prevalent in as many as
10% of diabetics within 20 years of the diagnosis, and patients who have
diabetes comprise about 25% of all patients in programs that treat end-stage
(the most severe) renal disease. And your eyes may suffer, with diabetes as
the leading cause of blindness in adults. Almost 50% of patients with the
noninsulin dependent form of diabetes show retinal disease within 10 years of
diagnosis. And I could go on and on with statistics about nerve disease,
circulatory problems, foot problems and impotence. The answer to all of this
remains with preventive actions, early diagnosis, well planned therapies that
include not only medication but exercise and diet as well, and an
understanding between patient and physician that aids people like you in
carefully managing their disease.