Diabetes - Signs of Diabetes

Diabetes is now becoming increasingly widespread across both adults and children. A lot of this is down to obesity and the vast amounts of sugar and refined white flour that is in our diet these days, but how do we know if we have diabetes and what are the signs of diabetes we need to look out for?

Well first of all lets get an understanding of what diabetes is. The first thing we need to understand is that there are two types of diabetes. Type 1 diabetes occurs when the pancreas doesn't produce enough insulin, and type 2 when the body's cells don't respond well to insulin. Both result in high blood sugar levels because the body is unable to process the available glucose. At one time type 1 was known as juvenile diabetes as it was mainly found in younger people, and type 2 was expected to be found in older people, but this is not necessarily the case now.

At present it is not really known what causes type 1, but it occurs when the immune system attacks the insulin-producing part of pancreas. With this form of diabetes, the beta cells of the pancreas no longer make insulin because the body?s immune system has attacked and destroyed them, this leads to this form of diabetes being controlled mainly by insulin injections.

Type 2, which is probably now the most common type, is often caused by poor diet and obesity.  Quite often you can control this type of diabetes with a combination of dietary treatment , tablets and injections and, frequently, insulin supplementation.

So now we know what the diabetes type are what are the signs of diabetes to look out for?

The signs can be very similar in both type 1 & 2 due to the drop in blood sugar levels. This could be down to a lack of insulin production, no production at all or simply, insulin resistance. The symptoms to watch out for are as follows
Extreme thirst
Frequent urination ? especially at night
Tiredness
Unexplained weight loss
Blurred vision

If you spot these symptoms happening to you consistently, then you must see a doctor as soon as you can. Whilst diabetes is very treatable, it is also very severe if left untreated and can lead to blindness, amputation, heart disease, kidney failure, erectile dysfunction and other problems.