10 Signs You Have Undiagnosed Diabetes

By Staff

Tuesday, April 24, 2018, 12:55

Diabetes has been claiming the world's healthy for decades now.

What began as an autoimmune condition that destroyed the pancreas' ability to produce insulin, slowly became a worldwide epidemic where adults ate them into hospital beds. In fact, children, who were once only affected by the autoimmune type 1 diabetes, have now started to fall prey to the dreaded lifestyle-related type 2 of this disease.

Given the alarming rate at which this disease is spreading around the world, it makes perfect sense that there are people walking among us who do not know that they suffer from diabetes.

Are you one of them? Let's find out with this guide on 10 signs you have undiagnosed diabetes.

1. You Pee Very Frequently...Even At Night

When your blood is carrying around a large amount of sugar in it, your body immediately starts to filter it out through your kidneys. And since sugar needs a lot of water to dilute it, this also drags out water from your body.

That's why those in the early stages of diabetes often complain of having to pee quite frequently, even in the middle of the night, which they never faced before.

2. You Are Thirsty All The Time!

Dehydration is a major problem faced by diabetics since their body keeps peeing out a lot of water to get rid of the sugar in their blood. So if you are awfully thirsty all the time without any valid reason behind the thirst (like playing sports or being out in the Sun), and this is coupled with excessive urination, then you probably have diabetes.

3. You Have Bad Breath

When your body is unable to utilize the sugar in your blood to fuel your energy needs, it starts to break down fats to do it instead. This process is called ketosis and leads to the production of a ketone bodies, which causes bad breath as ketones can easily leak into your lungs.

Plus, dehydration leads to dry mouth and that is another leading cause of bad breath.

4. You Are Hungry All The Time!

When your body cannot utilize the sugar in your blood (because of insulin-resistant type 2 diabetes), it gives your brain the signal that it needs fuel to continue functioning. This gives rise to a constant state of hunger to "provide" the fuel your body needs.

5. You Have Blurry Vision

This is a problem commonly faced by women suffering from diabetes and who have not been diagnosed yet. It occurs when fluid enters your lens, which leads to near-sightedness.

You can fix this problem by bringing your blood sugar back to baseline normal.

6. You Often Feel Pins And Needles In Your Hands And Feet

Diabetic neuropathy is a common symptom of type 2 diabetes wherein the blood supply to your extremities becomes reduced due to structural changes induced in your blood vessels.

That's the reason why people with undiagnosed diabetes often develop intense pins and needles-like sensations in their hands and feet, plus often complain of cold extremities.

7. You Have A Non-healing Wound On Your Feet That Has Become Infected

One of the biggest signs you have diabetes is the presence of a non-healing, ulcerated wound on your feet.

This occurs due to the reduced blood supply to the lower extremities, which prevents de-oxygenated blood in your veins from moving out of the site fast, leading to fluid-retention (a.k.a edema) and ulcers.

And since undiagnosed diabetics often have a very high concentration of sugar in their blood, their external wounds tend to get infected by microbes that feed on sugar.

8. You Lost Weight Without Trying

Diabetes prevents your body from utilizing the sugar in your blood for energy. So your body starts to break down stored fats and muscles to provide energy for the upkeep of your body.

So if you lose up to 10% of your body weight in the span of 6 months without exercising or following a diet, and you have a few or more of the above-mentioned symptoms, then you might have diabetes.

9. You Feel Tired All The Time!

Tired after a full 8 hours of sleep? Tired after climbing three steps? You might have diabetes if you show this symptom along with the others on this list.

Diabetics often feel fatigued because their body is unable to utilize the glucose in their blood for energy. So if you feel this way, please get yourself checked out.

10. Your Neck And Armpits Have Gone Dark

If your neck and armpits suddenly turn darker than the rest of your body without sun exposure, then you might have diabetes as this is an early sign of insulin resistance (type 2 diabetes).

In fact, women show this symptom more commonly than men.