Diabetes is a life changing condition that affects an individual’s ability to produce and/or use insulin. Insulin is a hormone that is produced when blood levels of glucose rise beyond a certain threshold. Its job is to instruct the body to absorb that glucose where it can then be used to provide energy for various activities and/or be stored as fat.
Without insulin then, a person will find that they lack energy for their every day tasks and they will see numerous unwanted effects from increased blood sugar. Sugar can be very destructive when it is allowed to build up, causing nerve damage and more.
If blood sugar is not managed, then patients can risk losing limbs, losing their vision, or going into diabetic shock or diabetic coma. Dangerously high levels of blood sugar can lead to diabetic coma which is characterized by loss of consciousness and which can be fatal.
The good news is that diabetes is highly manageable and most people with diabetes will lead happy, full and normal lives with adjustments to their diet and the use of insulin injections and other measures. What’s crucial then, is that you are able to spot the signs of diabetes early on and then react to them before they worsen.
In this post, we will look at 16 early signs of diabetes.
1. Fatigue
Tiredness and lethargy is one of the most common and most pronounced symptoms you are likely to experience from diabetes. Your body will still be converting the food that you eat into glucose but you need insulin for that glucose to be drawn into the cells and used as energy. Without insulin, you can’t utilize all that energy that is flowing through your blood and as such, it is as though you haven’t eaten.
Those with diabetes might find that regular tasks become more difficult and require more effort. They may feel slower and they might struggle to wake up in the mornings.
