15 Early Signs Of Diabetes You Shouldn’t Ignore
An enormously large number of people today are living with diabetes. What’s even worse is that many of them don’t know that they are in the clutches of a dangerous metabolic disorder. Its reason is that the early signs of diabetes are so subtle that people brush them off without even thinking that these mild changes can signify something serious. Diabetes is a health condition in which your body is not able to break down sugar. When it strikes your body, it prevents the proper functioning of the hormone insulin to occur. Insulin is responsible for regulating the movement of sugar into each and every cell in your body. Its improper functioning results in high sugar levels in the body. Diabetes also occurs when your body is not able to produce an adequate amount of insulin.
What Are the Main Causes of Diabetes?
Diabetes terms, Credit: Canva
Diabetes is generally categorized into type 1 and type 2. The reason behind type 1 diabetes is largely unknown. Doctors ascribe it to the abnormal functioning of your immune system which starts attacking cells in the pancreas that produce insulin. This results in very low insulin levels in a person’s body. In the absence of a sufficient amount of insulin, the movement of sugar to various cells in the body is hindered. Thus, the sugar gets accumulated in the bloodstream. A point to be noted is that type 1 diabetes does not arise because of an increase in weight. Environmental and genetic factors have a larger role to play in its occurrence.
What causes diabetes type 2? This type of diabetes occurs when the cells in your body do not respond to insulin. The pancreas in the body cannot perform their function of making sufficient amounts of insulin to counter the resistance of the cells to the same. With regards to type 2 diabetes, however, weight gain plays an important role in its occurrence. But this point cannot be generalized for everyone.
What Are the Early Signs of Diabetes?
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So what are the first signs of being a diabetic? Watch out for these subtle signs and if you find yourself experiencing them often, do not brush them away as a passing phenomenon.
Do you feel like you are not getting the same taste of your food as you used to? Do you find the need for adding more salt or condiments to your food so that you can get the desired taste? It is one of the early signs of insulin dysfunction.
Are you having problems with your eyesight lately? Blurred vision is also one of the early signs of diabetes.
Skin tags in the body can also be a result of insulin resistance. It is observed in those people who are the earliest stages of diabetes.
Hyperpigmentation in the skin or dark patches in various areas like the neck, armpit, and groin is also one of the mild and early signs of diabetes. It can be an indicator that you may be embarking on the road to type 2 diabetes.
Constantly having dry skin or itchiness in the skin is also a telltale sign of diabetes. You may feel like you have done everything to keep your skin moisturized yet the dryness just won’t go.
Are you constantly feeling like you are suffering from a brain fog that just won’t go? Difficulty in concentrating is one of the lesser-known early signs of diabetes. While it can be an indicator of many other health conditions, you cannot rule out an underlying threat of diabetes when experiencing a significant loss of concentration.
Heart palpitations without any reason are also a sign of diabetes. They occur without any psychological symptoms. Diabetics describe this condition as a pounding sensation in the heart.
Another early sign of diabetes is when you find your bruises taking longer than usual time to heal. It happens because of the presence of high glucose levels in your blood which block the movement of oxygen and nutrients to reach the cells that are impacted by the bruise.
A numbing or tingling sensation in feet is one of the widespread early signs of diabetes. Type 2 diabetes causes nerve damage and this type of sensation in the feet can be a sign of diabetic neuropathy.
When you are developing or have developed diabetes, your kidneys have to work extra hard to flush out the high amount of glucose in your blood. Thus patients find themselves feeling increasingly thirsty.
Along with increased thirst, diabetics also experience a higher urge for urination. It is also accompanied by an increase in the amount of hunger.
A dry mouth is also one of the crucial early signs of diabetes in people. When left unchecked, it reduces the amount of saliva in your mouth. As a result, you feel your mouth going dry.
Constantly facing issues related to oral health is also a sign of diabetes. It happens because high glucose levels deteriorate white blood cells which fight against bacterial infections in your mouth.
A breath that can be described as fruity is also a very common yet subtle sign of diabetes. If you feel like your breath smells sweet then you should check your blood sugar levels.
Are you finding yourself persistently fatigued? It is one of the early signs of diabetes in your body. An increased urge to sleep due to exhaustion happens during this time.
Can You Get Diabetes from Eating Too Much Sugar?
Bowl of sugar, Credit: Canva
What food causes diabetes? It is easy for people to assume that since diabetes is characterized by increased levels of sugar in one’s body, sugar-rich food is the culprit. But attributing it to sugar is wrong. Type 1 diabetes cause can not be found in the sugar that you consume through your food. This type of diabetes occurs when the pancreatic cells which produce insulin are rendered inefficient. How this may have occurred is something that we still do not know.
When it comes to type 2 diabetes one can say that consuming a high amount of sugar and the resultant weight gain does play a part in its occurrence to a large extent. However, here also sugar is not the only reason. A variety of other environmental and genetic factors also contribute to its development.