The Unexpected Side of Diabetes
Having type 1 diabetes has affected my health in a lot of unexpected ways — in areas you wouldn’t think would be affected.
For instance, in the months before I was diagnosed, when my blood glucose was really high and I didn’t know it, I was waking up in the middle of the night with horrifically painful cramps in my calves. I had never experienced anything so excruciating, and I never have since. It turned out that when my kidneys were pulling the excess sugar out of my bloodstream, they were also pulling out tons of fluids — and with that, electrolytes. I was basically pissing out all my body’s potassium, which is why I started getting painful muscle cramps.
Another unexpected side effect was on my teeth. Apparently high blood glucose also means a lot of sugar in your saliva. And what happens when there’s tons of sugar in your mouth? Well, you get cavities. So after I was diagnosed with diabetes I found I also had to have a lot of Washington DC dental restorations done — dental restorations being just a fancy phrase for fillings.
As a diabetic, it’s important to have a really good Washington D C dentist. You also want one that is good with the novocaine, because you may have more cavities than the average person, and therefore need more work done. If you are looking in the DC area for skilled sedation dentistry, Arlington has plenty of options.
The bottom line for diabetics is, the better control your sugars are in, the fewer issues you’ll have with your health in other areas. So check your blood sugar often, visit a specialist 3 or 4 times a year, and take as good care of yourself as you possibly can!
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