Three Common Symptoms of Diabetes
Diabetes is a disease in which the body of a healthy adult or child cannot process or produce enough insulin. Insulin is an important chemical which helps the body digest sugars and starches and turn them into energy. The symptoms of diabetes can be subtle.
Diabetes is a treatable disease, but without a proper diagnosis it can be deadly. There may be 7 million people or more in the United States who have diabetes but don’t even know it. One of the first ways to be on the lookout for this disease is to know some of the more common symptoms:
Extreme hunger and thirst: Since insulin controls how your body digests food, your body, and especially your kidneys, may start working overtime if it doesn’t have enough insulin. Since your body isn’t getting the full effect of the food you’re digesting, your body may feel as though it needs more. Since your kidneys are working hard and trying to eliminate extra sugar through urination, you’re losing a lot of liquid and may feel as though you have to keep drinking to replenish your body’s water.
Excessive urination: This is sometimes more difficult to notice because different people do urinate at different rates. The increased thirst of diabetes often leads to increased liquid intake which obviously means more urination. Adults who wet the bed at night unexpectedly could actually be suffering from a form of diabetes and not even realize it.
Increased fatigue: There are a number of reasons you may feel unusually fatigued, but the extra work your body is spending just to process sugar may be one of them. Your body also is not able to get as much energy from sugar and starches, so it may feel as though you’re always run down simply because you are!
Diabetes is a serious disease that can grow worse if not diagnosed early and treated properly. The good news is that diabetes is a disease which doesn’t have to kill you. You can live and even thrive with diabetes as long as you take care of yourself with some common sense treatments and actions.
Many of the symptoms above could be indications of a dangerous and undiagnosed. For example, there are many reasons an adult may wet the bed. If you have any of the above symptoms you may want to talk to your doctor or physician.