How Diabetes Affects the Function of Cells
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Diabetes
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Diabetes is a metabolic disease that's characterized by high levels of blood sugar, called hyperglycemia. In people who don't have diabetes, blood sugar levels are tightly controlled by a hormone called insulin, which is released from the pancreas. With people who have diabetes, this doesn't happen for a variety of reasons. Either the body doesn't produce insulin, the body produces ineffective insulin, or the body simply cannot use insulin properly or effectively. Regardless of which reason the blood sugar goes up though, it can have a number of effects on the body's cells.
Blood Vessels
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The main, cellular effects of diabetes take place in the blood, and in the blood vessels. Over time, the high blood sugar (which is quite detrimental to the diabetic) can cause damage to the network of arteries and veins that carries the blood. The cells of the blood vessels begin to degenerate as they're damaged and weakened by the diabetic's high blood glucose levels, and that weakening causes leakages and sometimes clotting. This is why the main way to halt the negative effects of diabetes begins with the blood sugar, because that's where the negative effects begin on a cellular level.
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Complications
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All of the effects and symptoms of diabetes are a direct result of damage to the blood vessels. Neuropathy, damage to the nervous system and a loss of feeling in the limbs, is caused by damage to small blood vessels that link to the nervous system. Kidney damage, resulting from leaking protein and urine, is also caused directly by the leakage of small blood vessels weakened by high blood sugar levels. Even eye complications, such as diabetic retinopathy, are a direct result of the damage that the disease does to a person's blood vessels.
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