What Does Undiagnosed Diabetes Feel Like
I remember feeling really tired and sleepy, but I didnt think anything of it as I was trying to juggle work and caring for my three children. When I got diagnosed, it made me think about my mum and her health. I thought she might have had diabetes too. She always used to feel tired and she had a boil on her leg that never seemed to heal. Read Saritas story in full.
Earlier Signs And Symptoms Of Diabetes
- Frequent urination, especially waking up frequently in the night to go having to go to the washroom a lot is a common sign
- Increased thirst you may find you are drinking more than usual
- Increased hunger you may need to snack between meals more than in the past
- Feeling tired, even after a good nights sleep you may find you need to take a nap or feel like you have no energy
- Blurred vision that changes from day to day increased blood sugar levels can cause your vision to change
- Having cuts and wounds that are slow to heal this may be a result of poor circulation or nerve damage caused by high blood sugar
- Tingling, numbness or pain in your hands and feet increased blood sugar levels can cause nerve damage
- Skin changes, such as sudden dark spots around the nape of your neck or under your armpits
- Getting frequent urinary tract, yeast or vaginal infections people with diabetes are more susceptible to these infections
- Losing or gaining weight without trying to weight loss is usually seen more with type 1 diabetes
- Feeling itchy all the time, due to yeast infections, dry skin or poor circulation.
You can find more information about type 2 diabetes symptoms here.
Faq: Frequently Asked Questions
What are the most common symptoms of type 1 diabetes?
Regardless of age, the most common symptoms of T1D are excessive thirst, fatigue, headache, and frequent urination.Why do people with type 1 diabetes urinate so often?
When sugar accumulates in a persons bloodstream, their body acts quickly to get rid of it by making extra urine. Excess glucose also triggers thirst signals in the brain, which results in drinking more and having to go to the bathroom more as well.
Why are type 1 diabetes symptoms different in children and adults?For reasons that still arent totally clear, the onset of T1D is much slower in adults, often taking months for symptoms to fully manifest, whereas in children, it may only take days. High blood-sugar levels are present for longer in the bloodstream of adults, meaning that there is more opportunity for long-term damage to organs and bodily systems. For instance, untreated high blood-sugar over several months time can lead to nerve and kidney damage, which is a complication often found in adults who have recently received a type 1 diabetes diagnosis, but hardly ever in children.What happens if type 1 diabetes is left untreated?T1D symptoms, if left untreated, can lead to complications such as eye damage, kidney damage, nerve damage, heart disease, and osteoporosis. Luckily, by working with your endocrinologist to manage your blood sugar, you can avoid all of them.
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What Diabetes Can Do
High blood sugar can impact different parts of your body:
Eyes. Diabetes raises your odds of having vision problems, including blindness. It can cause:
- Cataracts. The lens of your eye gets cloudy.
- Glaucoma. This can damage the nerve that connects your eye to your brain and keep you from seeing well.
- Retinopathy. This involves changes to the retina in the back of your eyes.
Heart. Years of high blood sugar may harm your bodyâs blood vessels and nerves that take care of your heart. That raises your chance of having heart disease. It can cause heart failure early on and heart attacks or strokes later. High blood pressure and high cholesterol make the problems even more likely.
Kidneys. Diabetes can affect blood vessels in your kidneys, too, so they may not work as well. After many years of trouble, they might stop working.
Feet. High blood sugar can harm blood flow and damage nerves, and that may cause cuts, scrapes, or sores to heal slowly. You may lose some feeling in your feet, which keeps you from noticing injuries that can get infected. If an infection gets serious, it might mean you need to have a foot removed.
Nerves. If high blood sugar damages your nerves, called diabetic neuropathy, you might feel pain, tingling, or numbness, especially in your feet.
Skin. Diabetes may make you more likely to have yeast infections, itching, or brown or scaly patches.
How To Lower Your Risk
Good habits go a long way toward preventing the other health problems that diabetes can cause. Make these tips part of your regular health routine:
Keep tight control of your blood sugar. Itâs the best way to avoid diabetes complications. Your levels should stay in these healthy ranges as much as possible:
- Between 70 and 130 mg/dL before meals
- Less than 180 mg/dL 2 hours after you start a meal
- Glycated hemoglobin or A1C level around 7%
Watch your blood pressure and cholesterol. If theyâre too high, youâre more likely to get other health problems like heart disease. Try to keep your BP below 140/90 and your total cholesterol at or below 200. Your doctor may prescribe medications to help you do that.
Get regular checkups. Your doctor can check your blood, urine, and do other tests to spot any problems. These visits are especially important, since many diabetes complications donât have clear warning signs.
Donât smoke. Lighting up harms your blood flow and raises blood pressure. If you need help to quit, your doctor can recommend treatments that might work for you.
Protect your eyes. Get a yearly eye exam. Your doctor can look for damage or diseases.
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Is There A Test To Diagnose Type 1 And Type 2 Diabetes
Your doctor or other healthcare provider will order urine and blood tests find out if you have diabetes. There are several different types of blood tests used to diagnose diabetes.
- Fasting blood sugar test: After fasting for 12-hours a glucose level is checked in your blood. If it is high, it is indicative of diabetes.
- Hemoglobin A1C test: This test tells your doctor how your average blood glucose level has been over the past 2-3 months.
- Normal ranges for HbA1c are between 4% and 5.6%.
- HbA1c levels that range from 5.7% to 6.4% indicates increased risk of diabetes.
- HbA1c levels higher than 6.5% indicate diabetes, while higher percentages indicate either worsening diabetic disease or poor response to diabetic treatments.
- Random blood sugar test: This is a test of your blood sugar at the moment your blood is drawn, but this number can vary greatly based on when you last ate.
- Oral glucose tolerance test: This test is rarely used in men, but it measures your bodys response to a large amount of glucose.
So What Foods Increase Insulin Production
All carbohydrates to some degree at least will raise your blood insulin levels. That is why I consider type 2 diabetes a form of carbohydrate intolerance. Protein can also raise levels but to a much lesser degree. The only macronutrient that keeps your insulin levels and, therefore, your blood sugar stable is FAT! Therefore, if you are trying to reduce insulin levels, you need to reduce your amount of certain carbohydrates and replace them instead with healthy, natural fats.
What does that mean in terms of actual FOOD CHOICES though?
When I say healthy, natural fat think nuts and seeds, avocados, omega 3 fats , extra virgin olive oil and whole eggs.
And when I talk about reducing certain carbohydrates, I mainly mean reducing your intake of refined carbohydrates such as pasta, rice and bread. Non starchy vegetables are fine and can be eaten in abundance. Many fruits are packed with carbohydrates, so if youre trying to reduce your carb intake, try and limit your intake to low-carb fruit, such as rhubarb, watermelon, berries, peaches and blackberries.
It is really important to say that I do not believe that there is one perfect diet for everyone. Different people respond to different diets.
However, if you have a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes or if you have been told you are at high risk or if you have significant abdominal obesity, here are 11 ways to start reversing the effects immediately:
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Yellowish Scaly Patches On And Around Your Eyelids
These develop when you have high fat levels in your blood. It can also be a sign that your diabetes is poorly controlled.The medical name for this condition is xanthelasma.
Take action
- Tell your doctor about the yellowish scaly patches around your eyes.
- Talk with your doctor about how to better control your diabetes. Controlling diabetes can clear the scaly patches.
Symptoms Of Type 1 Diabetes Onset In An Infant Or Child
The young child who is urinating frequently, drinking large quantities, losing weight, and becoming more and more tired and ill is the classic picture of a child with new-onset type 1 diabetes. If a child who is potty-trained and dry at night starts having accidents and wetting the bed again, diabetes might be the culprit.
Although it is easy to make the diagnosis diabetes in a child by checking blood sugar at the doctors office or emergency room, the tricky part is recognizing the symptoms and knowing to take the child to get checked. Raising the awareness that young children, including infants, can get type 1 diabetes can help parents know when to check for type 1 diabetes.
Sometimes children can be in diabetic ketoacidosis when they are diagnosed with diabetes. When there is a lack of insulin in the body, the body can build up high levels of an acid called ketones. DKA is a medical emergency that usually requires hospitalization and immediate care with insulin and IV fluids. After diagnosis and early in treatment, some children may go through a phase where they seem to be making enough insulin again. This is commonly called the honeymoon phase. It may seem like diabetes has been cured, but over time they will require appropriate doses of insulin to keep their blood sugar levels in the normal range.
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Symptoms Of Type 1 Diabetes
You might notice:
- Unplanned weight loss. If your body can’t get energy from your food, it will start burning muscle and fat for energy instead. You may lose weight even though you haven’t changed how you eat. See which foods are high in trans fatty acids.
- Nausea and vomiting. When your body resorts to burning fat, it makes ketones. These can build up in your blood to dangerous levels, a possibly life-threatening condition called diabetic ketoacidosis. Ketones can make you feel sick to your stomach.
Preventing Symptoms Of Diabetes
Controlling blood sugar is the best way to prevent symptoms of diabetes. Lowering blood sugar can help reverse prediabetes or prevent diabetes if you have prediabetes. If you have diabetes, lowering blood sugar can help prevent symptoms and complications.
Lark DPP and Lark for Diabetes provide coaching on steps that you can take to manage blood sugar. These can include making small changes in lifestyle choices, such as the following.
- Eating a healthier diet, such as choosing whole grains instead of refined grains, and limiting added sugars.
- Increasing physical activity to at least 150 minutes per week as long as your doctor recommends it.
- Taking any prediabetes or diabetes medications as prescribed.
- Getting enough sleep each night.
- Managing stress.
These are some take-home messages.
- It is important to recognize signs and symptoms of diabetes.
- It is possible to have high blood sugar and prediabetes or diabetes even without any symptoms of diabetes, so it is important to know your risk and ask your doctor if you should be tested.
- The most effective ways to lower blood sugar include daily choices that you can make.
- Lark offers personalized coaching to help turn healthy choices into long-term habits.
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Signs And Symptoms Of Diabetes
Exercise, Fitness & Nutrition Expert | Lark Health
Why is it so important to recognize signs and symptoms of prediabetes and diabetes?
Diabetes is among the most common chronic conditions in the U.S. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that 34.1 million American adults have diabetes, including14.3 million adults 65 or older. Another 88 million adults have prediabetes and are at high risk for developing diabetes if they do not take measures to lower blood sugar.
The good news is that you can lower your risk for diabetes if you have prediabetes, and lower your risk for diabetes complications if you have it. Lark Diabetes Prevention Program for people with prediabetes, and Lark for Diabetes for people with diabetes, provide 24/7 coaching to help make healthy lifestyle choices on a daily basis.
How Do I Check My Blood Sugar
You use a blood glucose meter to check your blood sugar. This device uses a small drop of blood from your finger to measure your blood sugar level. You can get the meter and supplies in a drug store or by mail.
Read the directions that come with your meter to learn how to check your blood sugar. Your health care team also can show you how to use your meter. Write the date, time, and result of the test in your blood sugar record. Take your blood sugar record and meter to each visit and talk about your results with your health care team.
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Symptoms Of Type 1 Diabetes Onset In Adults
When an adult is diagnosed with diabetes, they are often mistakenly told that they have type 2 diabetes. This is because there may be a lack of understanding by some doctors that type 1 diabetes can start at any age, and in people of every race, shape and size. People with type 1 diabetes who have elevated blood glucose and classic risk factors for type 2 diabetes, such as being overweight or physically inactive, are often misdiagnosed. It can also be tricky because some adults with new-onset type 1 diabetes are not sick at first. Their doctor finds an elevated blood sugar level at a routine visit and starts them on diet, exercise and an oral medication.
Early Signs And Symptoms Of Diabetes
1. Frequent urination
When your blood sugar is high, your kidneys expel the excess blood sugar, causing you to urinate more frequently. One of the early warning signs of diabetes is frequent urination that is urgent enough to wake you up to go to the bathroom during sleep.
2. Increased thirst
While your kidneys are working overtime and youre urinating more frequently, valuable fluids will be pulled from your tissues. Frequent urination will make you feel constantly thirsty.
3. Fatigue
When your blood sugar is high, your body works hard to get rid of the excess sugar. Not only does this process take a toll on your body, but it also alters the way that your body uses glucose for energy. Excessively high blood sugar, or hyperglycemia, has fatiguing effects among other symptoms. Additionally, the dehydration that accompanies more frequent urination is a common cause of fatigue in diabetics.
4. Blurred vision
High blood sugar can cause damage to the small blood vessels of the eye, resulting in a swollen lens that can cause blurred vision. As blood sugar levels rise and lower, your vision may return to normal or worsen, respectively.
5. Increased hunger
When you have high blood sugar, your body is actively looking to get rid of it. Because your body expels so much of the glucose you’re getting from your food, you may have increased feelings of hunger.
6. Unexplained weight loss
7. Slow healing cuts and wounds
8. Tingling or numbness in the hands or feet
9. Skin discoloration
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What Are The Warning Signs Of Diabetes
Untreated diabetes tends to cause worsening symptoms over time as chronically high blood sugar levels cause more damage to your tissues and organs. You may not recognize these warning signs in the beginning if theyre mild.
The symptoms of type 2 diabetes tend to come on more gradually than type 1 diabetes. In the early stages of diabetes, there may be no symptoms at all.
Its important that you visit your doctor if you notice any potential warning signs of diabetes. If left untreated, diabetes can severely damage the tissues and organs in your body.
What Are The Different Types Of Diabetes
Normally, the body uses insulin to help muscle and fat cells take up glucose to use as energy, says Erica Weitzner, MD, an endocrinologist at Summit Medical Group in New Jersey. When you develop diabetes, your body stops using insulin effectively, which allows sugar to build up in your bloodstream.
- Type 1 diabetes occurs when your pancreas fails to produce insulinthe immune system destroys the cells that produce it. Previously known as juvenile diabetes, it can occur at any age.
- Type 2 diabetes occurs when your cells do not respond as well to insulin as they should, and additional insulin is required to achieve the same effect as before, Dr. Weitzner explains. It mainly affects adults.
- Prediabetes occurs when your blood sugar levels are higher than normal, but not high enough to be diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.
- Gestational diabetes occurs when a pregnant womans hormones affect her ability to produce enough insulin for her body. Around 7% of women develop gestational diabetes.
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