What sorts of complications can come from diabetes?

There are many different reasons why diabetes can be a very difficult medical condition to deal with. One is that there are a wide range of complications diabetes can give rise to. Diabetes complications can affect all sorts of systems in a person’s body. Thus, there are many different functional abilities that diabetes complications can cause a person to lose, and diabetes complications sometimes render a person disabled. In severe circumstances, complications of diabetes may even put a person at risk of losing their life.

Here are some examples of complications that sometimes come up in relation to diabetes:

• Nerve damage.
• Vomiting, diarrhea, nausea or constipation resulting from nerve problems.
• Leg, foot or toe amputations resulting from infections.
• Retina blood vessel damage.
• Blindness.
• Kidney damage.
• Kidney failure.
• Kidney disease.
• Increased risk for hearing problems, skin problems, glaucoma, cataracts, stroke, heart attack, atherosclerosis and coronary artery disease.

As one can see from these potential complications, there are all different sorts of harms a person can suffer as a result of diabetes. The wide range of complications diabetes can have can sometimes make it difficult to determine/show what specific problems diabetes has caused for a person. This is one of the challenges that can arise for individuals who are applying for Social Security disability benefits in relation to loss of work ability due to diabetes. Attorneys can help such applicants when it comes to supporting their SSD claim through gathering medical evidence of the complications that their diabetes has subjected them to.

Source: Mayo Clinic, “Diabetes – Complications,” Accessed Feb. 17, 2015