5 Symptoms of Diabetes: Emergency Room Near You
Diabetes is a number of diseases that involve issues with insulin. Insulin is a hormone that is produced by the pancreas, which helps the body use and store the sugar and fat from the food we consume. Diabetes therefore occurs when the body does not respond as it should to insulin or if the pancreas produces little or no insulin. Diabetes doesn’t have a cure as we speak and those with it have to manage it so as to stay healthy and avoid any unwanted consequences. The number of people suffering from type 2 diabetes is sizeable, about 30 million, which is approximately 10% of the population. There is also a further 7 million of Americans that are undiagnosed as far as diabetes is concerned, with 84 million or so others having prediabetes. It is therefore important to know the common symptoms as far as diabetes is concerned to prevent the serious consequences of long-term uncontrolled diabetes which can include kidney damage, heart disease among others. This article will look to highlight five symptoms of diabetes so as to help you know if you may have diabetes and may need to see a doctor as well as some of the symptoms that show that you have a diabetic emergency and need to head over to an emergency room near you as soon as possible.
Frequent urination
One of the most common symptoms of diabetes is frequent urination, which is also referred to as polyuria in more professional circles. When you are experiencing frequent urination, it may be a sign that you have high blood sugar levels. In such a case, your kidneys are unable to keep up with this high amount of blood glucose and allow some of it into your urine. This is why you may find yourself urinating often, including at night where you have to wake up a number of times at night to urinate.
Increased hunger and thirst
Extreme thirst and increased huger is yet another common symptom of diabetes. If you have high blood sugar levels, you are likely to have extreme thirst, which will only be made worse if you are experiencing frequent urination as well. In most cases, drinking water will not satisfy this thirst. Increased hunger, which is also known as polyphagia, is also another symptom of diabetes. This is because diabetes interferes with the absorption process of glucose and as such your body cells are not able to absorb enough glucose, leading to situation where you are constantly hungry as your body looks for enough glucose to fuel its cells, this despite the fact that you have extra glucose in your blood.
Slow healing wounds
If you have diabetes, you will also notice that wounds will heal slowly than they normally should. This is because, since diabetes leads to high blood sugar levels, over time this will lead to the narrowing of your blood vessels. Once this happens, blood circulation will be drastically slowed down and as a result, if you have wounds, the amount of oxygen and nutrients reaching them will be greatly reduced and as such it will take longer for them to heal. Another thing that explains why diabetes leads to slow healing wounds is due to the fact that if you have blood sugar levels that are consistently high, then your immune system will eventually be damaged and as such your body will find it harder to fight off infections and heal wounds.
Blurred vision
Yet another symptom of diabetes is blurred vision, which usually occurs early on in unmanaged diabetes. This can be explained by the fact that high blood sugar levels can affect the tiny blood vessels in your eyes, leading to the seeping of fluid into the lens of your eyes hence the blurriness. This usually resolves after sometime but it is still important to seek the assistance of an eye doctor as soon as you can when you experience such symptoms. You should get your diabetes under control of you are presenting with such symptoms as failure to do so can lead to you developing more serious conditions such as diabetic retinopathy which can lead to blindness.
Numbness and nerve pain
Another symptom of diabetes is nerve pain and numbness where you may experience a sense of numbness or a tingling sensation in your hands, feet, fingers and toes. Such symptoms usually indicate diabetic neuropathy or nerve damage, a condition which usually develops slowly and usually comes about after years of living with untreated diabetes. However, it can also be one of the early signs that you have diabetes and need to see your doctor as soon as you can.
While the above are some of the symptoms of diabetes, there are symptoms that indicate that you may have a diabetic emergency on your hands and require immediate help. They include fever, difficulty breathing, seizures, chest pain which may radiate to the arms, shoulder or neck, severe headache and weakness on one side of your body as well as a loss of consciousness. If you are experiencing such symptoms, you should call 911 as soon as possible so that you can be taken to an emergency room near you.
It is our hope that this article will be of great help in not only helping you identify the early signs of diabetes, but also in helping you decipher when to go to an emergency room near you for the same.
