Monday, July 9, 2012

Type 2 Diabetes - The Main Warning Signs of High Blood Sugar and Diabetes

One of the unfortunate parts of finding out you have Type 2 diabetes is you might have been missing the symptoms for quite a long time. Many people either ignore or don't even recognize the symptoms of diabetes, until its gone all the way to full-blown Type 2 diabetes. Many people really get a surprise when their doctor hands them a diabetes or pre-diabetes diagnosis. Maybe they have gone to the doctor for a routine check up or because of a specific complaint, such as fatigue or the flu, and their lab work comes back showing their blood sugar is far too high.

As diabetes develops, it announces itself in several ways. Many of these ways are subtle, others are really in your face. Frequent trips to the restroom: One of the most common symptoms of Type 2 diabetes is making frequent trips to the restroom. Do you feel like you are constantly having to urinate?

Often, frequent urination is due to too much sugar being in your blood and your kidneys are getting a sugar bath. If your body is not using insulin properly or doesn't have enough of it, your kidneys have a hard time filtering the sugar back into your bloodstream. When your kidneys become overwhelmed, they attempt to draw extra water out of your blood in an attempt to dilute the extra glucose. This makes your bladder feel full constantly and keeps you running to the bathroom over and over again. Then you become thirsty...

An unquenchable thirst: Your mouth feels dry, and you feel like you want to drink water all day long. Although your mouth is dry, dehydration is actually about your brain. Although your brain needs a constant supply of sugar; when it is drowning in sugar it will pull sugar from any source possible... so the concentrated sugar can be diluted. This leads to you feeling dehydrated. You will probably have an urge to drink copious amounts of water in order to overcome this lack of fluid.

These two symptoms often go hand-in-hand. Fatigue and weakness: When the sugar from your meals cannot enter your cells, your cells cannot make energy so you constantly feel weary. When insulin is unable to unload sugar at the various spots in your body, sugar stays outside in your bloodstream. Either your pancreas is not making enough insulin or your cells are not able to receive sugar. Your cells then become starved and you start to feel run down and tired.


As diabetes progresses, you may have one of the complications most commonly associated with it: neuropathy or nerve damage. It can take months or years to show up. High levels of blood sugar damage the nerve endings that lead to your hands, legs and feet. If you start to feel:
-pain,
-numbness,
-itching,
-tingling, and
-other various sensations
you should discuss this with your doctor.

There are several other symptoms you may experience in the early days of Type 2 diabetes including:

-skin problems such as dark patches of skin in the folds and creases of your body,
-frequent bladder and vaginal infections,
-slow healing wounds and skin infections,
-blurry vision, and
-weight issues.


Don't take your body for granted, if your thirst increases and you are not running a high temperature, look at the main indicators for Type 2 diabetes and have your blood sugar levels checked by your doctor. It is easier to prevent full-blown Type 2 diabetes than to reverse it! How do you start to create a healthy lifestyle today so you can avoid damage to your body due to high blood sugar?

For nearly 25 years Beverleigh Piepers has searched for and found a number of secrets to help you build a healthy body. The answer isn't in the endless volumes of available information but in yourself.