Diabetes Symptoms

By Bobbie Hasselbring

Some symptoms of diabetes can typically include:

• urinating a lot (polyuria)
• drinking a lot (polydipsia)
• losing weight

Other symptoms can also include excessive hunger, being tired a lot, and being irritable.

Diabetes sometimes go unrecognized early on because parents think their children are urinating more simply because they are drinking more. Get your child evaluated by your Pediatrician before you start restricting her fluid intake though, because if she does have diabetes and you don't let her drink, she will keep urinating and quickly get dehydrated.

Diabetes affects the body's ability to use food for energy. With diabetes, your body either can't make or can't properly use your body's insulin. In people who have diabetes, the pancreas either produces no insulin or not enough insulin. Sometimes the insulin is produced but can't be used by the body's cells. The insulin "key" to the cells' "doors" is either not present or doesn't work right. Without insulin, the cell "doors" stay closed, and glucose builds to dangerous levels in the bloodstream. That high level of blood glucose is called hyperglycemia. Once the amount of blood glucose is too high, some of this glucose spills into the urine and out of the body.

When glucose builds up in the blood, two things can happen:

• The cells don't receive enough food and become starved for energy.
• Over time, high blood glucose levels can damage the eyes, kidneys, heart, blood vessels, and nerves.

Diabetes isn't contagious. You can't catch it from someone who has it. Anyone can develop diabetes, but certain risk factors make it more likely that you'll develop it. You are at an increased risk for diabetes if you:

• are overweight
• are age 45 or older
• have a parent, brother, or sister who has diabetes
• are African-American, Native American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian-American, or a Pacific Islander
• gave birth to one or more babies who weighed more than 9 pounds or have had gestational diabetes in the past
• have high blood pressure, that is a reading of 140/90mm Hg or higher
• have an HDL level, known as the good cholesterol, of 40 mg/dL or lower
• have a triglyceride level of 200 mg/dL or higher
• have been told that your blood glucose was higher than normal
• are not in the habit of exercising regularly
• have polycystic ovary syndrome

See your doctor regularly so you can find out if you have diabetes as early as possible. If you have diabetes and you take care of yourself, you can avoid many of the problems from diabetes. If you don't take care of yourself, many years of high blood glucose levels can cause serious problems. Many people don't discover they have diabetes until they have symptoms from serious or life-threatening problems such as:

• blindness
• kidney disease
• nerve disease
• blood vessel or vascular disease
• sexual problems
• stroke and heart disease

Metabolic syndrome is a condition that increases your risk for heart disease. It occurs in people who have a combination of the following factors:

• unhealthy cholesterol levels
• elevated blood pressure
• diabetes
• obesity

People who have this syndrome often develop insulin resistance.