Diabetes is a killer disease. It is a silent killer. A lot of people don’t even know that they have it until the symptoms get really serious. Diabetes not only affects one organ of your body, it indirectly affects the functioning of all the organs of the body.
For example a person suffering from diabetes is bound to get complications in his feet, eyes and blood circulation etc… if he does not control his blood sugar levels. It is better to know that you have the disease and control it rather than wait till you reach a stage when the treatment is not in your hands.
Here are a few signs that are a giveaway of the disease. If you display any of the mentioned signs below, do not forget to get your sugar levels checked at the nearest laboratory:
- Feeling thirsty and frequent urination
When you have high blood sugar levels, your body will first push this excessive blood sugar to the kidneys. But if the kidneys fail to do their job due to an overload, this glucose in the blood stream is then pushed to be expelled through your urine.
This need to expel the sugar through urination makes the body makes you want to urinate more often and since you are pushing out a lot of fluids from your body, you have the urge of being thirsty all the time.
- Hunger
All diabetes patients complain that they are constantly feeling hungry. The reason behind this is the fact that glucose cannot be stored in your cells, which is required for energy. So since your cells aren’t storing the energy, then your body doesn’t get its energy and is forced to eat to get energy. So the inability of energy storage sends wrong signals of being hungry.
- Tiredness and fatigue all the time
When you suffer from diabetes, your body fails to properly utilize the glucose, and is unable to process the glucose in the body’s cells to be used as energy. With the absence of glucose in the cells of the body, your body is sure to experience fatigue and tiredness as it does not have the energy to do anything.
- Weight Loss
When the body is excreting all the energy or glucose from your body due to its inability to store it, you tend to lose a lot of weight. This weight loss can be explained by the fact that the calories from the food are not being absorbed by your body and are expelled, not kept for later use.
- Numbness
When you have diabetes, the blood circulation gets affected due to the complications caused by high sugar levels in the blood stream. When sugar levels get high, they affect the walls of small blood vessels, due to which the blood supply to these vessels gets affected thereby cutting off the blood supply to these nerves. So if you experience any numbness or loss of sensation, especially in the feet don’t hesitate to get your blood sugar levels checked.
- Blurred vision
High sugar levels can affect a lot of organs, not sparing the eyes even. If you sugar levels are high, it may cause your lens to swell and change shape due to which you may experience blurred vision.
- Wounds not healing
When we suffer from diabetes, the high sugar levels slow the functioning of the body, which in turn causes the white blood cells from functioning as it should. When a cut or wound doesn’t heal, the white blood cells are not in a position to act fast enough to heal the wound. So if your wound is taking longer than usual to heal, it might be a sign of diabetes.
- Frequent illness
When you suffer from diabetes, your immune system also goes for a toss. Since the body is functioning at a slower pace than normal people, you suffer from frequent illness does to the body’s inability to fight against the infections.
- Dry skin
The frequent urination caused by diabetes will cause your body to dry up, including your skin. So if you feel that your skin looks or feels drier than usual, you might want to take a second look.
- Overall dissatisfaction and irritation
When your body is not functioning as it should there is bound to be some problems. When it’s not getting its required energy and resulting in the exhaustion of the body, it’s natural or human to feel irritated or bad tempered.
Now don’t neglect your sugar levels. High levels can cause a lot of harm to your body. If you display any of these signs, head to your nearest doctor to check your sugar levels. It is better to treat it early than suffer with serious complications in the future.
Written by: Rasha Ashraf
