Diabetes Symptoms: Early Signs
Diabetes Mellitus, better known simply as diabetes, causes a person’s blood sugar levels to become abnormally high. If one doesn’t get help in time, this condition can result in severe complications like nerve damage and kidney disease. Thankfully, this illness doesn’t have to come as a surprise; there are symptoms of diabetes to look out for. However, these early signs of diabetes can be very mild, so you may not recognise them immediately, especially in the case of type 2 diabetes. In type 1 diabetes, these symptoms can happen rapidly and are much more severe.
Have you experienced any of these diabetes symptoms?
- Extreme Hunger
Diabetes Mellitus is characterised by its interference in how your body absorbs the glucose from the food your body digests and uses as fuel. This is why people with diabetes are constantly hungry, no matter how recently they had their last meal.
- Tiredness
As mentioned earlier, diabetes prevents enough sugar from moving through your bloodstream into your body’s cells. This can lead to fatigue as there isn’t enough sugar moving from the blood stream into your body’s cells. This is the kind of tiredness you can’t snap out of, even after a long night’s sleep.
- Frequent Urination
When your blood sugar levels spike, your kidneys try to get rid of this extra sugar by filtering it out of the blood. As a result, you may find yourself dashing to the restroom more often, especially at night.
- Increased Thirst
Since your kidneys flushing out the excess sugar from your blood leads you to take more bathroom breaks, your body is likely also losing additional water. Over time, you may find you are getting thirstier as your body becomes more dehydrated.
- Blurred Vision
If the world is looking a little fuzzy, there’s a chance you don’t need to invest in a pair of glasses after all. Excess sugar can damage the tiny blood vessels in your eyes, which can cause your vision to become blurry. This blurred vision can occur in one or both eyes and may come and go – at least in the early stages of diabetes. If one goes without treatment, the damage to these blood vessels becomes more severe and may lead to permanent blindness.
- Slow Healing Of Cuts And Wounds
As with the blood cells in your eyes, high blood sugar levels can damage nerves and blood vessels throughout the body and impair overall blood circulation. This symptom plays out in the time it takes for small cuts and wounds to heal, which in diabetics can take weeks or months – much longer than necessary. The longer it takes for a wound to heal, the greater the risk of that wound becoming infected.
- Dark Patches On Skin
Patches of dark skin forming on the creases of the neck, armpit, or groin areas is signs of a higher risk of diabetes. So, be on the look out for patches of dark skin that feel very soft and velvety to touch.
- Itching And Yeast Infections
High levels of sugar in blood and urine are a breeding ground for yeast, which can lead to infection. Yeast infections commonly occur on warm, moist areas of the body like the mouth, genital areas and armpits. The affected areas are typically itchy, but other symptoms can evolve from itching into burning, redness, and soreness.
When To Call A Doctor
By spotting these early symptoms, you can avoid the serious consequences of this illness such as nerve damage and heart trouble. In general, you should speak with your doctor, if you:
- Feel ill, weak, and very thirsty
- Are urinating more often than usual
- Experience a persistent stomach ache
- Are breathing more deeply and faster than normal
- Have sweet breath (this is a sign of high ketones, the acid that remains, when the body burns its own fat)
If you are older than 45 or if anyone in your family has been diagnosed with diabetes, you should consider asking your doctor to test your blood sugar levels. The sooner you recognise this issue, the sooner you can do something about it and start living a healthier, happier life.