What Are the Symptoms of Diabetes?
The symptoms of type 1 diabetes often occur suddenly and can be severe. They include:
- Increased thirst
- Increased hunger (especially after eating)
- Dry mouth
- Frequent urination
- Unexplained weight loss (even though you are eating and feel hungry)
- Fatigue (weak, tired feeling)
- Blurred vision
- Labored, heavy breathing (Kussmaul respirations)
- Loss of consciousness (rare)
The symptoms of type 2 diabetes may be the same as those listed above. Most often, there are no symptoms or a very gradual development of the above symptoms. Other symptoms may include:
- Slow-healing sores or cuts
- Itching of the skin (usually in the vaginal or groin area)
- Yeast infections
- Recent weight gain
- Numbness or tingling of the hands and feet
- Low blood glucose levels
- Impotence or erectile dysfunction
How Is Diabetes Managed?
At the present time, diabetes can't be cured, but it can be treated and controlled. The goals of managing diabetes are to:
- Keep your blood glucose levels as near to normal as possible by balancing food intake with medication and activity.
- Maintain your blood cholesterol and triglyceride (lipid) levels as near their normal ranges as possible by decreasing the total amount of fat to 30% or less of your total daily calories and by reducing saturated fat and cholesterol.
- Control your blood pressure. Your blood pressure should not go over 130/80.
- Slow or possibly prevent the development of diabetes-related health problems.
You hold the key to managing your diabetes by:
- Planning what you eat and following a balanced meal plan
- Exercising regularly
- Taking medicine, if prescribed, and closely following the guidelines on how and when to take it
- Monitoring your blood glucose and blood pressure levels at home
- Keeping your appointments with your healthcare providers and having laboratory tests as ordered by your doctor
What you do at home every day affects your blood glucose more than what your doctor can do every few months during your checkups.
Topics:
Practice balance diet for healthy nutrition.
What is Diabetes?
Diabetes is a condition caused by the lack of the hormone insulin produced by the pancreas, or when the hormone is ineffective. It is a common chronic disease - one of the top ten-killer diseases in Singapore.
What Does Insulin Do?
Insulin is required to move glucose from the bloodstream into the body cells for usage or storage. When this fails, diabetes develops. The high amount of glucose in the blood leads to the glucose being spilt over into the urine, hence forming a 'sweet urine'.
Diabetes is a condition which results when a person's body doesn't make any insulin, enough insulin, or doesn't use insulin the right way. Insulin is a hormone made in the pancreas gland that helps your cells use blood sugar for energy. When insulin is in short supply, the glucose (sugar) in the blood can become dangerously high. Someone who is diabetic may have to take insulin by injection, or pills by mouth to help the body secrete more of its own insulin or make better use of the insulin it does secrete. Some diabetics, however, require no medication.
Diabetes is the most common chronic, serious ailment in the US. It's the leading cause of both blindness and kidney failure. It can cause nerve damage that requires amputations. And diabetes greatly raises the risk for heart disease and stroke.
Despite the wide swath diabetes cuts through our society, many people harbour misconceptions about the disease...
Misconception #1:
Diabetes is a disease that kids get-and if you didn't get it then, you needn't worry about it now.
Misconception #2:
No one likes injections. So if you have type 2 diabetes, the prospect of giving yourself regular insulin injections may seem scary. But recent research shows that if you're having trouble keeping your blood glucose at healthy levels A1c levels less than 7 per cent starting insulin treatment sooner rather than later is the best way to avoid compli-cations from diabetes down the road.
Why Some Type 2s Need Insulin
When it comes to controlling diabetes, it really does take a village. That's the conclusion of Danish researchers who assigned 80 people with type 2 diabetes to intensive treatment (IT), and 80 others with type 2 to conventional treatment (CT).
Here's what to do to keep your baby safe-and protect your own health, too
Diabetes Focus: Is there anything that makes it particularly difficult for a woman with diabetes to become pregnant?
Dr. Jovanovic: Surprisingly not, and sometimes we wonder why.
Occasionally, women with diabetes will develop polycystic ovarian disease, but the answer to your question is, no, women with diabetes can become pregnant as frequently as anyone else.
Medication is not enough to make a diabetic patient feel good and live a full life. Exercise has the potential to control the diabetes by non-medical means, reduce the severity of the disease, and significantly reduce the risk of long-term complications.
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