The Early Signs & Symptoms Of Diabetes: How To Know It’s Time To See Your Doctor

What Are The Symp­toms Of Dia­betes At The Begin­ning? Dia­betes is alarm­ing­ly preva­lent in the Unit­ed States and Cana­da. In Amer­i­ca, accord­ing to the Cen­ter for Dis­ease Con­trol (CDC), almost 35 mil­lion Amer­i­cans have Dia­betes – more than 10 per­cent of the pop­u­la­tion. In Cana­da, things aren’t much bet­ter. Approx­i­mate­ly 8.8 per­cent of the pop­u­la­tion deals with it, accord­ing to gov­ern­ment sta­tis­tics — approx­i­mate­ly 2.2 mil­lion people.  There is good news, how­ev­er. Thanks to research and mod­ern med­i­cine, Dia­betes is no longer always a life-threat­en­ing ill­ness. It has to be diag­nosed ear­ly and prop­er­ly man­aged, but most patients thrive once they’re get­ting con­sis­tent care.

What Causes Diabetes?

There are two types of Dia­betes: type 1 and type 2. Although the exact caus­es of type 1 are unclear, there are a lot of doc­tors who do know about symp­toms and ear­ly warn­ing signs. Type 2 Dia­betes is also a bit of a mys­tery, but cer­tain fac­tors – obe­si­ty and a seden­tary lifestyle – put you at greater risk of devel­op­ing it. Both types involve the dis­rup­tion of insulin pro­duc­tion in your body and some­times must be treat­ed by insulin injec­tions to help sta­bi­lize blood sug­ar levels. In this arti­cle, we explore the symp­toms of Dia­betes and explain how to rec­og­nize ear­ly warn­ing signs. We also sug­gest how you can help man­age the con­di­tion once you receive reg­u­lar med­ical care. Dia­betes is some­times mis­un­der­stood, and mis­con­cep­tions about it per­sist. For exam­ple, some think only peo­ple who are over­weight devel­op Dia­betes. Untrue! Remem­ber actress Mary Tyler Moore? She had type 1 Dia­betes, diag­nosed at the age of 33. Yet she was an active, slen­der per­son who danced dai­ly – a far cry from the idle, over­weight idea too many peo­ple still have of what a per­son with Dia­betes looks like. When a child is diag­nosed with Dia­betes, it is usu­al­ly type 1. Type 2 most com­mon­ly affects peo­ple over 40. But the signs and symp­toms of both are often the same. With either type of Dia­betes, the body fails to pro­duce insulin in the pan­creas, an organ locat­ed behind the stom­ach. When that occurs, sug­ar builds up in the blood­stream. Left untreat­ed, Dia­betes can cause great dam­age to your body. Dia­betes left untreat­ed can inflict kid­ney dam­age, blind­ness, stroke, heart dis­ease, and oth­er crit­i­cal issues. But let’s not go too far into the worst-case sce­nar­ios. Let’s focus on how you can rec­og­nize the ear­ly signs of Dia­betes in your­self, your child, or a loved one. Knowl­edge is pow­er, as the say­ing goes, and know­ing these symp­toms is the best way to ensure you get prompt treat­ment. Dia­betes is not a death sen­tence! Peo­ple can live long lives when it’s man­aged prop­er­ly. But get­ting a cor­rect, ear­ly diag­no­sis is key.

Early Warning Signs:

If you see even one of these signs in a per­son you love or expe­ri­ence one your­self, track it for a few days. If one or more of these symp­toms per­sist, it’s time to see your doc­tor. Only she/he can tell you what’s going on and refer you to a spe­cial­ist if he/she deems it nec­es­sary. It might be noth­ing, but it just might be an ear­ly sign of Dia­betes.

- Extreme Thirst And/Or Hunger

We all expe­ri­ence thirst and get pangs of hunger occa­sion­al­ly. Maybe a work­out in the hot sun or miss­ing lunch because you’re busy at work makes you rav­en­ous by sup­per­time. That’s not what we mean here. If you drink water, but your thirst isn’t sat­is­fied, or if you’re starv­ing not long after a meal, your blood sug­ar lev­els might be out of whack. If either of these symp­toms lasts more than a few days, make an appoint­ment with your physi­cian. Make the call if you notice your child drink­ing enor­mous amounts of water and still want­i­ng more.

- Blurry Vision

This can hap­pen to any­one who is over­tired or expe­ri­enc­ing eye strain after a long day spent read­ing doc­u­ments at the office. But as with so many symp­toms of Dia­betes, the impor­tant thing to notice is whether blurred vision per­sists. It could spell trou­ble if you’ve had a good night’s sleep and still feel like you’re not see­ing clearly.

- Irritability

Again, we must stress that we’re talk­ing about some­thing more seri­ous and more fre­quent, that occa­sion­al crank­i­ness. If you’ve had a sol­id night’s rest, and most things are going well, yet you are still short-tem­pered and anx­ious, it could be a sig­nal that some­thing is wrong.

- Extreme Fatigue

This is tricky because many con­di­tions (like Lupus) can cause extreme fatigue, but Dia­betes is one of them. See­ing this in your child is par­tic­u­lar­ly alarm­ing – they sleep well, reg­u­lar­ly, yet they com­plain of being exhaust­ed. Even if it isn’t Dia­betes, the child needs a check-up, espe­cial­ly if you notice this in com­bi­na­tion with one or more of the signs we’ve out­lined here.

- Urinating a lot– an awful lot

As we get old­er, the need to pee increas­es. But if you’ve reg­u­lat­ed your flu­id intake (for exam­ple, none after 6 p.m.) and you still get up three or four times a night, it could be a sign of Dia­betes. Fre­quent uri­na­tion is one of the most com­mon symptoms. Chil­dren can usu­al­ly last for hours before need­ing to use the bath­room, so if you notice that your child is going more often, make a men­tal note. Don’t pan­ic, but if it keeps hap­pen­ing and isn’t sim­ply because they drank too many litres of water while play­ing, con­sid­er call­ing their pedi­a­tri­cian or your doctor.

- Inexplicable Weight Loss

Los­ing weight when you haven’t been diet­ing, or see­ing that your child has lost weight even though they’re eat­ing con­sis­tent­ly, is some­thing you must­n’t ignore. This is espe­cial­ly true if your child’s weight (or your own) has been steady for a long time. A lit­tle fluc­tu­at­ing up or down isn’t seri­ous. How­ev­er, los­ing 10, 15 or 20 pounds is a sign that some­thing might be amiss.

- Infections & Minor Wounds That Don’t Clear Up Quickly

Do you have a uri­nary tract infec­tion (UTI) that won’t go away even when you take antibi­otics? Any infec­tion, or even some­thing minor like a bad bruise, should­n’t take over­ly long to heal once treat­ed. But Dia­betes can cause your immune sys­tem to stop help­ing you recov­er at a nor­mal pace. If this is hap­pen­ing to you or your child, find out if there is an under­ly­ing cause, like Dia­betes. These are the most com­mon ear­ly signs of Dia­betes. If you (or a loved one) are expe­ri­enc­ing one or more of them, sched­ule a check-up or phone call with your doc­tor. It’s vital that Dia­betes is diag­nosed ear­ly – that’s done with blood and urine tests – so the sit­u­a­tion does­n’t worsen.  Even bet­ter, take steps to avoid devel­op­ing the con­di­tion at all. Some fac­tors con­tribute to Dia­betes that you can’t avoid, like genet­ics, for exam­ple. But oth­ers are with­in your con­trol, and the more you pay atten­tion to them, the better! Here are two tips the whole fam­i­ly can fol­low. All of them con­tribute to a healthy lifestyle and help you avoid ever hear­ing the diag­no­sis of Dia­betes.

1- Control Your Weight

That means not con­sum­ing too many processed foods and drinks, like fast food, soda, and oth­er sources of fats, sodi­um and sug­ar. If you enjoy indulging in the occa­sion­al sweet treat, make it a once-a-week serv­ing of dark choco­late. Eat lots of veg­eta­bles, not too much red meat, and don’t call for take-out too often! Obe­si­ty is not the only risk fac­tor for devel­op­ing Dia­betes, but it is def­i­nite­ly one of them.

2- Get Lots Of Regular Exercises

While it’s true that plen­ty of active peo­ple get diag­nosed with Dia­betes, reg­u­lar exer­cise helps you stay trim and sleep well at night. It also helps reg­u­late mood in adults and chil­dren. Since many schools don’t offer a lot of phys­i­cal activ­i­ty any­more, make fam­i­ly out­ings – swim­ming, hik­ing, walks in the park, etc. — a part of your nor­mal routine.

Final Thoughts

If you’re already at risk of devel­op­ing Dia­betes because of genet­ics (for exam­ple, your mom devel­oped it as a young girl), your risk is height­ened. That means that fol­low­ing these guide­lines, and pay­ing close atten­tion to the ear­ly warn­ing signs, is key. How­ev­er, even if you or some­one in your fam­i­ly does devel­op Dia­betes, try not to pan­ic. With the help of a doc­tor, you can man­age this con­di­tion. Insulin injec­tions may be nec­es­sary, but many peo­ple who self-inject say it becomes sec­ond nature. What’s impor­tant is that you don’t get too dis­cour­aged. Your health and well-being are yours to shape and improve. If nec­es­sary, lose a lit­tle weight. Get mov­ing and stay phys­i­cal­ly active. Toss the fast food and start eat­ing – and liv­ing – as health­ful­ly as you can!