Controlling blood sugar is important to prevent diabetes complications

Treating diabetes is not just about managing blood sugar. But the most important thing about treating diabetes is to treat it so you don’t get complications

Jakarta (ANTARA) – Deputy Health Minister Dante Saksono Harbuwono reminded diabetes sufferers of the importance of controlling blood sugar, to prevent other problems in the future.

“Treating diabetes is not just about blood sugar. But the most important thing about treating diabetes is to treat it so you don’t get complications. Don’t have a stroke. Don’t have a heart attack. Do not do dialysis. “Don’t cut your legs and so on,” Dante said in an online broadcast from the Ministry of Health in Jakarta, Wednesday.

If someone already has diabetes, Dante said, he usually suffers from diabetes. However, with blood sugar under control, diabetes sufferers are no different from normal people in general who can do any activity.

“I always tell my patients. There are no diabetes patients whose blood sugar cannot be controlled. All diabetes patients can normalize their blood sugar. “And all diabetes patients, like normal people, can live without complications,” said Dante, who is also a doctor with the endocrine-metabolic-diabetes subspecialty.

In people suffering from diabetes, Dante explained, the cells in the body cannot use or use the sugar that has been consumed, so the cells starve and the sugar accumulates in the blood

Cells with low sugar are prone to damage, causing diabetes complications. When blood sugar is not controlled, body cells cannot use it.

“How do you avoid problems? So the sugar must be able to be used by the body. How does the body use sugar? “Well, this depends on the level of diabetes,” said Dante.

He said that the problems that occur depend on the severity of the diabetes that the person is suffering from. Every diabetes patient has a different treatment or cure to control their blood sugar, some just need to go on a diet, some need oral medication, and some even need insulin that can be taken injection

One example of a problem that people often hear about is the amputation of diabetics’ feet. Dante explained that the legs are the organ with the longest blood vessels in the body. In people suffering from diabetes whose blood sugar is not controlled, their blood vessels can get damaged.

“If the blood vessels in the legs and feet are damaged, the healing will be hindered. “If healing is blocked, it will get infected, so that the infection does not spread anywhere, it must be cut off,” Dante explained.

Another example of diabetes complications is diabetic gastroparesis, which occurs due to an imbalance in stomach acid in diabetes patients. Bad breath is one of the symptoms of diabetic gastroparesis.

Dante said that an unhealthy accumulation of bacteria is often found in people with diabetes. In addition, the teeth of diabetic patients who have abnormalities also cause an unpleasant smell in their mouth.

He also reminded the importance of immediate treatment if symptoms appear in diabetes patients. Do not let these symptoms be ignored and continue, until it makes the health condition of the diabetes patient even more burdensome.

“As soon as his blood sugar has risen, his kidney function has changed, even if he doesn’t need a blood test yet, the kidney leak needs to be dealt with quickly. “As soon as we treated him, then signs of heart abnormalities appeared, we treated his heart quickly so that a heart attack would not occur,” he said.

Therefore, said Dante, it is important for people suffering from diabetes to monitor their health condition regularly by visiting a doctor. In this case, the doctor not only treats blood sugar, but he also indicates to the patient whether problems have arisen or not.

“If complications arise, treating the complications is the main goal of diabetes treatment. “It’s not just blood sugar,” Dante said.