- These symptoms can indicate diabetes
We’ve all heard about diabetes before. It’s a lifelong condition that causes a person’s blood sugar level to become too high. There are two types of diabetes, but by far the most common one is type 2. Ninety per cent of people with diabetes in the UK have type 2.
With this type, the body doesn’t produce enough insulin or its cells don’t react to insulin. The symptoms of diabetes are very subtle, but if you recognise more than one of these symptoms, you might want to visit your doctor.
A lot of people suffer from diabetes without knowing about it.
1. Toilet
If you have diabetes, your body doesn’t produce enough insulin, which is a substance that breaks down sugar. This means there’s a lot of sugar in your blood that your body wants to get rid off. This causes you to have to pee more often. Are you noticing that your visits to the toilet are becoming very frequent and you wake up multiple times during the night because you feel the urge to pee? It might be a sign you have diabetes.
2. Thirsty
This symptom is a logical progression of the previous one. Because you have to go to the toilet a lot, you also feel constantly thirsty. The worst thing is that some people try to quench their thirst with coke or juice, which means they’re only making things worse by consuming more sugar.
3. Bad breath
Because of all the thirst, your breath will also start to smell. Besides this, your body might start to burn fat instead of sugar: this is a process that’s called ketosis. People who are following a ketogenic diet set this process in motion themselves. Are you not following a ketogenic diet, but does your breath smell grossly sweet or even like acetone? Then your body might have gone in ketosis without you noticing it.
4. Your vision isn’t very good
Blurry vision is a common symptom of diabetes in women. Due to sugar levels being too high, liquid might enter the lens in your eye, which causes blurry vision. So, are you debating a visit to the optician, but are you also experiencing some of these other symptoms? You might want to visit your doctor first. If your glucose levels get more back to normal, your vision will improve again too.
5. Your hands and feet are asleep a lot
Do your arms and legs tingle a lot and do you often have the feeling like your hands or feet are asleep? This can also be a symptom of diabetes. In this case, this tingling is caused by your blood not flowing properly anymore.
6. You don’t heal easily
If your blood sugar levels are too high, small wounds and bruises heal less quickly than usual. Plus, you also run a higher risk of infection because the sugar in your blood can stir bacteria into motion.
7. You lose weight
If you suddenly lose weight without trying to, this can point to a couple of different things, one of which is diabetes. Insulin transports sugar from your blood to your cells and this provides energy. If you don’t have enough insulin, your body will need to burn something else: fat and muscles. This causes you to suddenly lose a lot of weight. If you have lost between 5 and 10 per cent of your body weight within six months, you’ll need to visit a doctor.
8. Always tired
Because diabetes causes you to not break down carbohydrates into glucose, your body doesn’t have its main source of energy. This can cause you to feel very tired, despite having a good sleep rhythm. Of course, feeling tired can have other causes as well, but if you experience this symptom along with some of the other ones we mention, you might have diabetes.
9. Yeast infection
As a woman, you might experience yeast infections more often if you have diabetes. Because of all the sugar in your blood, the yeast gets “fed” a lot, which causes you to experience infections more often. Have you had multiple infections over the span of a few months? This can be a sign of your blood sugar levels being too high.
10. Dark spots
Do you suddenly have dark spots in your neck, armpits or groin? This can point to diabetes. In women, it can also indicate PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome).
11. Itch
A lot of diabetes patients with high blood sugar levels experience itchiness more often. Because sugar feeds yeast infections, you can develop infections on your skin and this causes itches.
Do you recognise multiple of these symptoms? Then you might want to visit a doctor!
Originally published in Tips and Tricks, https://www.tips-and-tricks.co/health/subtle-signs-diabetes/2/