What is Diabetes - Types and Early Symptoms of Diabetes

Sweet things in life are not always sweet. Ask a diabetic patient and you shall know what ‘sweet’ means to them.

Diabetes, it comes in different forms and at different stages with some common and some varying symptoms of each.

With the increasing awareness about diabetes, its management, and treatment; we bring to you this article to help you know what actually diabetes is, its types and symptoms.

Surely, this article shall act as an ice-breaker for many as they will get to know what was unknown to them earlier about diabetes.

And here we begin!

What is diabetes?

Well, diabetes is a disease when the level of the blood glucose rises. Blood glucose is also known by the name of blood sugar. Whatever we consume provides us with blood glucose which is the source of energy for our body.

This blood glucose gets converted into energy by helping it to get into the cells and act as energy-provider for the body. When the body’s ability to produce or use insulin gets affected, the blood glucose stays in your blood without being converted into energy. This is the condition when diabetes surrounds your life and starts affecting it.

Diabetes is also known as “a touch of sugar” or “borderline diabetes”.

Types of diabetes

Diabetes, as mentioned earlier too, comes in different forms and at different stages. Each type has some common and some varying symptoms. The most common types of diabetes and their symptoms are listed here:

Type 1 diabetes

When the immune system of the body destroys the beta cells present in the pancreas, it causes type 1 diabetes. Beta cells are the ones responsible for producing insulin in the body. This type of diabetes starts showing its symptoms in adolescence.

Symptoms of Type 1 diabetes

The symptoms of this type of diabetes tend to develop within a short span of time in children whereas in case of adults symptoms take more time to develop.

The dominating symptoms of Type 1 diabetes are:

Feeling thirsty: The person with Type 1 diabetes continuously feels the urge to drink water as he feels thirsty most of the times.

Frequent urination: This sign is most common during the night time. Urination is frequent which also leaves the body dehydrated.

Feeling tired: The energy level reduces which makes the person feel tired and passive in his day to day activities.

Weight loss: The person loses weight within a short span of time. The person tends to lose muscle bulk which makes him look leaner and weaker as the time passes.

Itchiness around the genital area: Yeast infection around the genital area or itchy feeling is one of the prominent symptoms of this type of diabetes.

Blurred vision: With time, the vision gets blurred. This is caused due to the lens of the eye changing its shape.

Slow healing of cuts: Cuts and wounds take a long time to heal when a person’s body gets affected by this type of diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes

When the insulin produced by your pancreas is unable to work properly or the pancreas is unable to make enough insulin, this condition leads to type 2 diabetes. Due to the inability of insulin to function properly, the blood glucose level keeps rising.

Symptoms of Type 2 diabetes

Generally, the symptoms of type 2 diabetes are hard to recognize in most of the cases.

The dominating symptoms of type 2 diabetes are:

Feeling thirsty: The person feels thirsty at most of the times and drinks lots of water regularly.

Headaches: Fatigue and headaches accompany this type of diabetes.

Foot pain and numbness: High blood sugar can weaken the nerves which lead to foot pain, numbness or tingling sensation.

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Originally published at parvatihospital.com on May 30, 2019.