How to Recognize Early Diabetes Symptoms

 

The scary thing about diabetes is that you don't know exactly what the early symptoms are, and if you don't treat it when they appear, it can be life-threatening.

 

 

 

Here's what you need to know about early diabetes symptoms and diabetes, a scary disease that sneaks up on you.

First, let's take a quick look at the definition of diabetes together.

What is diabetes?

 

 

 

 

Diabetes is a disease characterized by high levels of blood sugar (glucose) in the blood due to a variety of causes, which results in an overflow of glucose into the urine.

And here's a fun anecdote about diabetes: there's a condition called diabetes insipidus that has similar symptoms to diabetes.

It's said that in the very distant past, to differentiate between the two conditions, doctors would taste a patient's urine and if it was sweet, they would diagnose diabetes, otherwise they would diagnose diabetes insipidus.

Early diabetes symptoms

 

 

 

 

Many people have mild early symptoms of diabetes that are often ignored and eventually worsen.

Here are some early symptoms of diabetes that may be mild, but you should check them out to see if they apply to you.

※ 5 typical symptoms

1. frequent urination: When the blood sugar level in the body is high, the kidneys filter excess sugar out of the blood, so the frequency of urination increases.

 

2. next : Excessive thirst occurs because the kidneys excrete excess sugar in the urine.

3. polyuria: You urinate a lot for the same reason as oliguria.

4. polyphagia: Increased hunger because glucose is not being used as a sufficient energy source.

 

5. weight loss: glucose is not used as a sufficient energy source, so you eat a lot, but you lose weight.

※ Other symptoms

Fatigue, blurry eyes, pain in legs, dry mouth, dry and itchy skin, slow or poor wound healing, susceptibility to infectious diseases (colds, urinary tract infections, etc.)

Diagnosis of Diabetes

 

 

 

 

A person is diagnosed with diabetes if they have any of the four criteria below.

1. plasma blood glucose of 200 mg/dL or more, measured without regard to meals, with typical symptoms of diabetes (e.g., diabetes mellitus, polyuria, unexplained weight loss)

 

2. 8-hour fasting plasma glucose greater than or equal to 126 mg/dL

3. 2-hour plasma glucose greater than or equal to 200 mg/dL on a 75 g oral glucose load test*.

* An oral glucose load test is a test used to confirm diabetes. It is sometimes done in conjunction with a blood glucose test, but is done if the blood glucose is not in the normal range and is not high enough to be considered diabetes.

 

4. Glycated hemoglobin* level of 6.5% or higher

* Red blood cells contain an oxygen-carrying protein called hemoglobin, but when blood sugar is high, it binds to some of the glucose in the blood and is called glycated hemoglobin.

What's scary about diabetes?

 

 

 

 

The scariest thing about diabetes is its life-threatening complications.

In diabetes, the sticky blood from high blood sugar causes inflammation in the blood vessels, and when the blood vessels break down, organs are damaged.

You should be more concerned about uncontrolled diabetes complications than cancer, such as brain stroke, vision loss, chronic kidney disease, and foot necrosis.

How is diabetes treated?

 

 

 

If you're diagnosed with diabetes, how do you treat it? You may be wondering.

Do I manage my diabetes with exercise and diet? Or do you need to start taking diabetes medication early on and live with it for a long time?

Many studies favor starting diabetes medications early on.

In one study, patients diagnosed with diabetes were randomized to a diet-only group or a diet-plus-medication group for five years. After an average of 10 years of follow-up, with no restrictions on how the diabetes would be treated afterward, the researchers found that those who aggressively and tightly controlled their blood sugar early on were able to reduce the risk of acute myocardial infarction and death from diabetes complications.

But that doesn't mean you don't have to exercise and diet, right?

A combination of lifestyle and medication has been shown to prevent diabetes complications in the long run.

These are just a few of the important things you should know about the early signs of diabetes.

References: More Medical Common Sense (by Dr. Changbeom Park), Seoul Samsung Medical Center Diabetes Education Center website