Diabetes: why an annual check-up?

If you are diagnosed with diabetes, it is important to live according to it as best as possible: take your medication on time, check your blood sugar regularly and live a healthy life tout court. In addition, annual, preventive medical examinations are extremely important to grow old healthily with diabetes.

Also read: Diabetes and depression: a worrying duo

Detecting complications

These preventive examinations can detect the extent to which you are at risk of complications from diabetes. They can also detect early complications and therefore treat them at an early stage. These complications include damage to the large blood vessels (cardiovascular system), the small blood vessels (in eyes and kidneys, for example) and the nerve pathways in the body.

Once every three months you go for a general check-up. There they check your blood sugar, weight, blood pressure, feet and lifestyle that influence your diabetes. In addition, there is an annual more extensive check-up where eyes, mouth, kidneys, liver and cholesterol are also tested. Due to these preventive check-ups, the chance that you will develop complications with diabetes is much lower.

Also read: Hyperglycemia: symptoms of high blood sugar levels

What investigations are necessary?

Diabetics are at a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, especially with prolonged high blood sugar and blood fats. There are several tests to check this:

• Measure blood pressure
• Measure cholesterol and blood fat levels through blood tests
• Clinical examination: listening to the heart, feeling the pulse and checking the beat of the blood vessels in the legs and feet. If the result is abnormal, additional examination is sometimes necessary, such as a bicycle test and Doppler examination.

Diabetes can also disrupt nerve pathways and lead to diabetic neuropathy. Investigation into this consists of several aspects, depending on the form of neuropathy that is being tested. For example, the doctor can place a plastic wire against your soft tissue with light pressure, perform a visual inspection of the position of the foot, test for muscle strength and tendon reflexes, ask about the presence of symptoms such as dizziness, bowel, continence or potency problems…

Due to reduced sensitivity and blood circulation (due to damage to nerves and blood vessels), there is a risk of diabetic foot wounds. Therefore, the blood circulation of the feet is tested: the doctor feels the arteries of the feet, he also evaluates the temperature and color of the feet. Problems with nerve conduction can be tested by means of a plastic wire that the doctor places perpendicularly against the foot chamber with light pressure.

Diabetes can also cause sexual problems, such as vaginal infections and impotence. So be alert for these symptoms and discuss them with your doctor so that a solution can be found.

Finally, people with diabetes are advised to get vaccinated annually against influenza and COVID-19, as they are a reduced immunity against infections.

Also read: Diabetic dermopathy: what are sugar spots?

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