It is important to know that diabetes can cause a lot of complications in the elderly. These can be heart attack, stroke, peripheral vascular disease, chronic renal failure or blindness. Therefore, along with the treatment of diabetes, regular check-ups are necessary to monitor the control of diabetes and to control the development of complications. As you age, you have a higher risk of diabetes-induced symptoms and organ failure. With ageing, increasing insulin resistance and impaired pancreatic islet function reduce your life expectancy to 74 years.