Diabetes Symptoms

The common symptoms of diabetes are often very easy to overlook. As a result, nearly 1 out of 3 people with Diabetes are not even aware that they have the disease. Doctors call this asymptomatic - without symptoms. That’s roughly 6.5 million people, or, roughly the population in the state of Washington!

Different types of diabetes are often diagnosed by different common courses, even when the symptoms are similar. Because people with Type 1 Diabetes have no insulin production, the side effects of the disease are rather obvious. As such, Type 1 Diabetes is often detected when a person is still young and can be relatively easy to recognize.

However, it may be more difficult to detect common diabetes symptoms in a person with Type 2 Diabetes or Gestational Diabetes because the symptoms are easy to pass off as traits of other health-related or environmental conditions. Also uncommon are latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (see LADA), and maturity onset diabetes in the young (see MODY).

Here are a few of the most common diabetes symptoms:

• A frequent need to urinate
• Constantly feeling thirsty, even after drinking water
• Feelings of hunger, even after a large meal
• Unexplained weight loss
• Increased feelings of fatigue
• Irritability
• Numbness or tingling in the hands or feet
• Slow-healing infections or skin-lesions
• Blurry vision
• Erectile dysfunction
• Unexplained nausea
• Bladder or vaginal infections
• Frequent dehydration
• Fainting spells or coma

Diabetes is a serious disease that could potentially have deadly side effects. You may feel overwhelmed when you are first diagnosed with the disease, especially if your diabetes symptoms went undetected for a prolonged period of time. However, you ARE in control of how you manage your diabetes.

By educating yourself about proper nutrition and exercise routines, you will be able to make very simple lifestyle changes that will allow you to seamlessly integrate your diabetes treatments into your daily routine without much effort. Changing your habits may take some getting used to, but the changes will allow you to continue a healthy, productive lifestyle. Detecting and diagnosing your symptoms is only the first step towards a better you.

Click here to learn more about Diabetes interactively.