Diabetes is the leading cause of new cases of blindness in people between 20 and 70 years of age. Virtually every major organ system in the body is damaged by diabetes. Complications include blindness, kidney failure, heart disease, stroke, amputation of extremities, loss of nerve sensation, early loss of teeth, high-risk pregnancies and babies born with birth defects. Diabetes can cause arteriosclerosis which leads to heart disease, gangrene and loss of extremities. People with diabetes are 2-4 times more likely to have heart disease than the general population.
Diabetic neuropathy leads to severe pain and loss of sensation in extremities.
Intestinal problems may also occur. Over 54,000 lower extremity amputations are performed each year on people with diabetes. It is now understood that childhood diabetes is an autoimmune illness, and thus similar to rheumatoid arthritis or multiple sclerosis. Autoimmunity is an illness where the body's own white blood cells, which normally fight infection, turn on a part of one's body. Over time, so many of these cells are lost that there is a lack of insulin and diabetes subsequently develops.