Is it possible to prevent the complications of diabetes?

Is it possible to prevent the complications of diabetes?

Anne Peters, MD, FACP, CDE (Professor and Director of Clinical Diabetes Programs, USC Keck School of Medicine) gives expert video advice on: Is it possible to prevent type 1 diabetes?; Is it possible to prevent type 2 diabetes?; What environmental factors contribute to diabetes? and more...

I think that the most of the complications of diabetes are preventable. Unfortunately they are not reversible so if somebody doesn't know that they have diabetes for 10 years they can come to me with the nuances of diabetes onset only they just found out and they already have damage to their eyes, their kidney and their nerves. So first and foremost people need to get diagnosed early. They need to find out what their blood sugars are, they need to see if they are at risk and then if you put people like that under good care and they keep coming back and getting good care, in my experience they really don't get diabetic complications. Now, there may be a little problem here and there, there may be a little damage to the eyes, little damage to the kidneys over 20 – 30 years but in general it's not something the person really notices and if it's treated then you can really deal with that.