Diabetes Symptoms
Diabetes is a very serious disease that many people around the world face. It is essentially the body’s inability to make insulin or to use insulin correctly depending on which type of diabetes you have – type 1 or type 2 respectively. Insulin affects the amount of glucose in your blood and too high or too low levels of blood glucose can cause serious repercussions. That being said, many people have diabetes and don’t realize it. Nonetheless, everyone should be aware of the symptoms for the disease.The two most tell-tale, classic symptoms of diabetes are an increased thirst and increased urination. These two symptoms are the most common because this illness affects the kidneys which in turn affect your urine output and your hydration level.
Other symptoms of the disease include excessive hunger, rapid weight loss, fatigue and irritability. These symptoms, including increased thirst and increased urination are all symptoms of type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes has some addition symptoms that include frequent bladder, skin and gum infections that are slow to heal, slow healing cuts and bruises, blurred vision, and numbness and tingling in the hands and feet.
The tricky thing about diabetes symptoms is that sometimes they seem so common that they get ignored. In fact, according to the American Diabetes Association in 2007 5.7 million people did not know they had the disease and were undiagnosed. Another problem with diagnosing the disease is that sometimes there are no symptoms. That’s right, there are people that have had the disease for months or even years and not known it due to a lack of symptoms.
The important thing to remember is if you are having any symptoms of diabetes – even if very mild you should speak to your health care provider. They will order up one of three diabetes tests and talk to you in-depth about your family medical history as well as your symptoms in order to make a diagnosis.
People with an early diabetes diagnosis often have the best outcomes. While diabetes cannot be cured per se, learning to manage your blood glucose levels and getting the proper treatment will leave you feeling much better and more like your normal self. Plus with good blood sugar management and treatment for diabetes you will greatly reduce your risk for developing the many serious complications that are associated with the disease.
Increased Thirst – Could it be Diabetes?
Increased thirst is when you feel thirsty much more than normal. This can be attributed to many things such as exercise and eating an access of salty foods or it can be a symptom of diabetes. The reason for increased thirst as a diabetes symptom is that your body is not able to remove the extra glucose that is in your blood due to a lack of insulin. This makes your kidneys work extra and even then they can’t remove all the glucose so it ends up being excreted from you body with other fluids in the form of urine making you increasingly thirsty.
Increased Urination – Could it be Diabetes?
Increased urination is when you need to urinate more than normal. This can be from drinking an excess of fluids or it can be a symptom of diabetes. When your body doesn’t make insulin or doesn’t use insulin correctly, extra glucose is found in your blood and your kidneys work harder to remove it. Inevitably they can’t therefore it is removed from the body in your urine making you urinate more often than normal. This also prompts you to be increasingly thirsty and the more you drink, the more you urinate.
References
http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-basics/symptoms
