You could have diabetes and not know it. This chronic disease, in which blood sugars are elevated because the pancreas doesn’t make enough or any insulin, is one of the most common chronic health conditions in America.
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Of the 38.4 million people in the U.S. with diabetes, 7.8 million are not aware they have the disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Symptoms can be mild, and Type 2 diabetes symptoms can be especially hard to pinpoint because they can be vague or associated with other chronic conditions.
“In many patients with Type 2 diabetes, the disease progresses slowly, and they may not realize that they have developed it without screening,” says Dr. Asha M. Thomas, an endocrinologist with Sinai Hospital of Baltimore.
[READ: Tips for Monitoring and Controlling Blood Sugar Levels.]
Early Signs of Diabetes
You can’t know for sure whether you have diabetes just based on symptoms. For a definitive diagnosis, you’ll need to see a health care provider who can check your blood sugar levels.
Dr. Kathleen Wyne, an endocrinologist specializing in Type 1 diabetes and a professor of medicine in the division of endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism with the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus, notes that while the symptoms listed below are among the most common, it’s usually a combination of symptoms that indicates the possibility of diabetes.
Here are some early signs of diabetes:
— You have to urinate more often
— You feel thirsty more often than usual
— You develop urinary tract, yeast or vaginal infections frequently
— You experience unintentional weight loss
— You have flu-like symptoms or feel more fatigued
— You experience occasional blurred vision
— You experience erectile dysfunction
— You need longer to heal
[SEE The Best Foods to Help Manage Diabetes]
You have to urinate more often
You may feel a need to urinate more often because your kidneys are working harder to process extra sugar in your urine. The color of the urine you produce if you have diabetes is usually clear or very lightly colored.
You feel thirsty more often than usual
As you urinate more, you’ll feel more dehydrated, and that makes you want to drink more liquids. Some people also feel hungrier than usual.
You develop urinary tract, yeast or vaginal infections frequently
Sometimes, OB-GYNs help to diagnose diabetes based on an increased frequency of UTI infections or yeast infections.
Diabetes causes changes to the body’s immune system that can increase your risk of developing other infections. Irregular menstrual cycles or miscarriages can also be signs of diabetes, Wyne adds.
You experience unintentional weight loss
While many people want to lose weight, the weight loss that occurs when you have uncontrolled diabetes is not a healthy way to lose weight. It happens because your body can’t properly use insulin to help process glucose, a sugar found in food, for fuel. As a result, your body starts to process fat and muscle for fuel, says Susan M. De Abate, a nurse, certified diabetes educator and team coordinator of the diabetes education program at Sentara Virginia Beach General Hospital.
You have flu-like symptoms or feel more fatigued
If your spouse starts complaining that you used to love to do stuff, but now you just want to stay home and sleep, that could be a sign that your health is compromised.
The fatigue comes from a lack of glucose, your body’s top energy source. And waking up frequently at night to urinate can also contribute to tiredness during the day, Wyne says.
You experience occasional blurred vision
Uncontrolled diabetes can lead to a condition called diabetic retinopathy, which affects your vision. Eye doctors sometimes play a role in helping to diagnose diabetes because of the vision symptoms that can arise.
You experience erectile dysfunction
In men under age 50, erectile dysfunction can be a sign of diabetes. That’s because high blood sugar can damage nerves and blood vessels associated with erections.
You need longer to heal
If you notice that it seems to take a lot longer for cuts and scrapes to heal, that could be an early sign of diabetes. That’s due to decreased blood circulation as well as potential nerve damage.
[READ: Questions to Ask Your Doctor About Diabetes]
Unusual Signs of Diabetes
In addition to the typical early signs of diabetes, there also are some less common signs that are medical emergencies, says Dr. Kathleen Dungan, a professor of medicine and interim director of the division of endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.
One of those more unusual signs is diabetic ketoacidosis.
“Diabetic ketoacidosis is what happens when a person is severely insulin deficient and can’t get glucose into the cells of the body that need it for fuel,” Dungan explains.
At that point, the body starts to break down fat, resulting in excess ketone levels and high blood acidity.
Symptoms of diabetic ketoacidosis include:
— Confusion
— Fruity breath odor
— Nausea
— Vomiting
Another rare sign is a hyperosmolar nonketotic state, which is a complication of Type 2 diabetes.
“Affected individuals have extremely high glucose levels and dehydration and commonly other medical conditions,” Dungan says.
This often overlaps with diabetic ketoacidosis, but a person’s confusion may be more severe and the mortality rate is usually higher.
Early Symptoms of Type 1 vs. Type 2 Diabetes
The symptoms of Type 1 diabetes are usually similar to those of Type 2, but they come about more suddenly. For example, a child may have flu-like symptoms that move quickly and send the family to the emergency room where a Type 1 diabetes diagnosis is made.
In contrast, the symptoms for Type 2 diabetes can be drawn out over several years before they become bad enough to be noticeable.
For Angela Hudgens of Orlando, Florida, a few years back, life felt hectic but normal as a young mother. Yet some symptoms started that she couldn’t avoid.
“Regardless of how much water I consumed, it was never enough. Meanwhile, I was running for the toilet all the time, which made caring for my baby all the more stressful, particularly at night when I’d already woken to feed,” Hudgens says.
She also felt a fatigue that was deeper than just life-with-a-baby fatigue. She also began to lose weight.
“The scariest part came when my eyes began to cloud over. One day I could barely see to feed my baby, and it dawned on me that this wasn’t something I could brush off any longer,” she says. “With a baby in my care, I had to act to discover what was going on.”
She saw a doctor and was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. The doctor’s office did routine blood tests, including measuring her blood sugar.
“It was overwhelming to process, but I was also glad to be told what was wrong and to be put on treatment immediately,” she says.
How to Know If You Have Diabetes
As Hudgens alluded to, seeing a health care provider as early as possible to get tested for diabetes is crucial to getting diagnosed. Tests used to help diagnose diabetes include:
— Fasting glucose, determined with a blood test
— Hemoglobin A1C, also determined with a blood test (this is your average glucose over a two- to three-month period)
— Oral glucose tolerance test, which involves getting a blood test, drinking a special sugary drink and then having a blood test about two hours later
The A1C test also could reveal if you have prediabetes — which means you still have time to change your eating habits, increase physical activity, and lose weight so you don’t develop full-blown Type 2 diabetes. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, for instance, recommends shedding 5% to 10% of your current weight. So if you weigh 200 pounds, a 10% weight loss goal means losing 20 pounds. Some people are successful in never progressing from prediabetes to full-blown Type 2 diabetes, but it takes sustained effort and self-care.
How to Know If You Have Diabetes Versus Something Else
Here are just some of the things that can be confused with diabetes:
— Diabetes insipidus, a water regulation disorder that causes some symptoms similar to those for diabetes mellitus, which includes Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes
— Normal aging, with symptoms like dry skin and using the bathroom frequently
— Side effects from certain drugs. For instance, if you take a diuretic, which is often prescribed to help control blood pressure, it could make you urinate more. You might think your increased urination is only from the medication, but there might be something else going on too.
— Urinary tract infections, which also can cause more frequent urination
Some patients get so used to living with certain symptoms — be it fatigue or increased urination — it never occurs to them that it could indicate a health problem, De Abate says.
“Some people go undiagnosed for years, and their bodies handle it because they still produce some insulin,” she explains.
Still, that doesn’t mean they are producing enough insulin or processing it properly, and it needs to be addressed before the disease progresses and complications arise.
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How Do I Know If I Have Diabetes? originally appeared on usnews.com
Update 12/20/24: This story was previously published at an earlier date and has been updated with new information.
