Health Tips

Symptoms of diabetes for juvenile diabetes and type 2 diabetes are:

• Excessive Thirst and Urination
• Loss of Fluids
• Severe Hunger
• Weight Loss
• Fatigue
• Changes in Vision
• Infections
• Nerve Pain.

Excessive Thirst and Urination

Excessive thirst (polydipsia) and frequent urination (polyuria) are the classical symptoms of diabetes. High levels of blood sugar make your blood thick and sticky and the body stimulates thirst to add fluids to dilute sugar in the blood.

When you drink plenty of water to quench thirst, the kidneys drain out excess water in the form of urine and protect the system of your body from being overloaded with fluid. But frequent urination leads to water loss in the body, which in diabetes causes sugar to concentrate again in the blood.

This process repeats the abnormal cycle of thirst and urination. These symptoms are more prominent in type 1 than type 2 diabetes and may often be absent in people with type 2 diabetes.

Loss of Fluids

Excessive urination results in severe loss of fluids, a condition that leads to dehydration or water loss in the body.

The dehydration can cause various medical conditions, including general weakness and the more serious condition in which the blood acids become very high (ketoacidosis), especially in people with type 1 diabetes. Severe loss of water can lead to coma and even death.

Severe Hunger

When your blood sugar is high, some sugar along with other nutrients passes in your urine. These nutrients as well as sugar are a source of energy to your body and their excretion through frequent urination causes a heavy loss of energy.

To regain energy, your body stimulates hunger. Also, when sugar accumulates in the blood and does not reach the innumerable cells and muscles that require it for energy, the cells begin to starve and you feel hungry. (Excessive hunger, however, can also be a symptom of low blood sugar, a dangerous medical condition. To be sure, test your blood sugar.)

Weight Loss

In diabetes, you may be eating a lot and yet be losing your weight.

Reason: When sugar is high in the blood, you may spill over some sugar in the urine (noted before). Because sugar is energy (4 calories per gram), you lose a large number of calories when you excrete large amounts of sugar in the urine.

Loss of calories results in loss of weight. Rapid weight loss is a marked feature in people with type 1 diabetes; this symptom as noted earlier, may be absent in people with type 2 diabetes.

Changes in Vision

Frequent changes in blood sugar levels make your vision blurred or clear. When blood sugar remains high, the eye lens swells and distorts the vision; when blood sugar returns to the normal level, the eye lens recovers from swelling and the vision becomes clear.

Blurred vision caused by raised blood sugar levels is a self-correcting condition, which people with diabetes may frequently experience. This condition sharply differs from the serious eye disease called retinopathy in which high levels of blood sugar damage the retina, and may lead to blindness in extreme conditions.

Fatigue

When insulin in your body is not enough or it cannot work efficiently, sugar is not properly delivered to the cells of the body where it is required for energy. When your body does not get proper nourishment, it lacks energy and you feel fatigued.

The feeling of fatigue is common when sugar in the blood is high such as when you have eaten a heavy meal loaded with carbohydrates (because carbohydrates cause maximum rise of blood sugar). However, keep in mind that fatigue can also be a sign of low blood sugar. To be sure, test your blood sugar.

Infections

Diabetes tends to impair your body’s infection-fighting system, resulting in an increased risk for developing infections. These infections are slow to heal and tend to resist treatment. The infections most commonly associated with diabetes include gum, urinary tract, foot, and skin infections, and various kinds of wounds and ulcers that heal very slowly.

A common infection in diabetes is a yeast infection caused by the yeast fungus called Candida. Both men and women with diabetes may develop yeast infection but the women are at increased risk.

Yeast infection causes vaginal yeast in women, a condition characterized by itching and irritation in the vagina, inflammation of the vulva, and a white coating on the vaginal walls. In men having yeast infection, the end of the penis may become red, swollen, painful, and filled with sores covered with a cheese-like white coating.

Nerve Pain

Several years after having diabetes, people tend to develop nerve pain or numbness in their legs, feet, arms, and hands. These conditions are common symptoms of nerve damage (neuropathy) caused by diabetes.

Raised blood sugar levels tend to damage all blood vessels in your body, including the tiny vessels that supply the blood to the nerves. When your nerves do not get enough blood, they become weak and you feel nerve pain.

Nerve pain may diminish or disappear with improved control of blood sugar; however, it may come to stay when nerve damage has become chronic and irreversible.

Other Symptoms

These may include: itching, gum disease, darkening of the skin around eyes, and bad smell in breath.