Type 1 Diabetes Risk Factors
- Family History Having a family member with type 1 increases the likelihood of having the disease.
- Genetics The presence of certain genes increases the risk of type 1 diabetes being present .
- Geography Type 1 is more prevalent further away from the equator.
- Age The peak age of diagnosis is 14, although some cases do not become apparent until th 30âs or even 40âs..
- Health History Risk or concurrent diagnosis of autoimmune disease.
Youre Taking More Bathroom Breaks
When you have diabetes, your body becomes less efficient at breaking food down into sugar, so you have more sugar sitting in your bloodstream, says Dobbins. Your body gets rid of it by flushing it out in the urine. Thats why youre going to the bathroom a lot. Most patients arent necessarily aware of how often they use the bathroom, says Dr. Cypess. When we ask about it, we often hear, Oh yeah, I guess Im going more often than I used to,’ he says. But one red flag is whether the need to urinate keeps you up at night. Once or twice might be normal, but if its affecting your ability to sleep, that could be a symptom to pay attention to.
Is There A Test To Diagnose Type 1 And Type 2 Diabetes
Your doctor or other healthcare provider will order urine and blood tests find out if you have diabetes. There are several different types of blood tests used to diagnose diabetes.
- Fasting blood sugar test: After fasting for 12-hours a glucose level is checked in your blood. If it is high, it is indicative of diabetes.
- Hemoglobin A1C test: This test tells your doctor how your average blood glucose level has been over the past 2-3 months.
- Normal ranges for HbA1c are between 4% and 5.6%.
- HbA1c levels that range from 5.7% to 6.4% indicates increased risk of diabetes.
- HbA1c levels higher than 6.5% indicate diabetes, while higher percentages indicate either worsening diabetic disease or poor response to diabetic treatments.
- Random blood sugar test: This is a test of your blood sugar at the moment your blood is drawn, but this number can vary greatly based on when you last ate.
- Oral glucose tolerance test: This test is rarely used in men, but it measures your bodys response to a large amount of glucose.
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What Do I Need To Know About Blood Glucose Testing Before And During Pregnancy
How often you check your blood glucose levels may change during pregnancy. You may need to check them more often than you do now. If you didnt need to check your blood glucose before pregnancy, you will probably need to start. Ask your health care team how often and at what times you should check your blood glucose levels. Your blood glucose targets will change during pregnancy. Your health care team also may want you to check your ketone levels if your blood glucose is too high.
How To Know If You Have Diabetes
This article was co-authored by Laura Marusinec, MD. Dr. Marusinec is a board certified Pediatrician at the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, where she is on the Clinical Practice Council. She received her M.D. from the Medical College of Wisconsin School of Medicine in 1995 and completed her residency at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Pediatrics in 1998. She is a member of the American Medical Writers Association and the Society for Pediatric Urgent Care.There are 37 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page.wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. In this case, 100% of readers who voted found the article helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 277,549 times.
Diabetes is a metabolic disorder that affects your body’s ability to either use or produce insulin, which how your body can use blood sugar for energy.XResearch source When your cells become resistant to insulin or your body doesn’t make enough of it, your blood sugar levels rise, causing many of the short-term and long-term symptoms of diabetes. There are four different types of sugar diabetes: pre-diabetes, type 1, type 2, and gestational, although the majority of cases diagnosed each year are type 2 diabetes. In each of these types, there are both similar symptoms and symptoms that distinguish each type from the others.
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When To See A Dermatologist
Diabetes can cause many other skin problems. Most skin problems are harmless, but even a minor one can become serious in people who have diabetes. A board-certified dermatologist can recognize skin problems due to diabetes and help you manage them.
Are all dermatologists board certified?
No. See what it takes to become board certified.
ImagesImage 1: Image Courtesy of Clark C. Otley, MD. All Rights Reserved
Images 3, 7, 8, 9: Used with permission of the American Academy of Dermatology National Library of Dermatologic Teaching Slides.
Image 2 from DermNetNZ
Some images used with permission of Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology
ReferencesCohen Sabban, EN. Cutaneous manifestations of diabetes mellitus from A to Z. Focus session presented at: 74th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology March 4-8, 2016 Washington D.C.
Duff M, Demidova O, et al. Cutaneous manifestations of diabetes mellitus. Clinical Diabetes. 2015 33:40-8.
Kalus AA, Chien AJ, et al. Diabetes mellitus and other endocrine disorders. In: Wolff K, Goldsmith LA, et al. Fitzpatricks Dermatology in General Medicine . McGraw Hill Medical, New York, 2008:1461-70.
McKinley-Grant L, Warnick M, et al. Cutaneous manifestations of systemic disease. In: Kelly AP and Taylor S. Dermatology for Skin of Color. . The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. China, 2009:481-4.
Morgan AJ and Schwartz RA. Diabetic dermopathy: A subtle sign with grave implications. J Am Acad Dermatol. 2008 58:447-51.
Risk Factors For Prediabetes
Sometimes the symptoms of prediabetes can go away if you take better care of your health, but they can come back if you fall back into an unhealthy lifestyle.
Its important to be aware of prediabetes, especially if youre over 45 years of age. Youre also at risk for developing prediabetes if you have any of these medical issues:
- Cardiovascular disease
- Unusual fatigue
- Wounds that wont heal fast
A blood test can tell you if you have prediabetes. There are several different types and they are the same tests that diagnose Type 2 diabetes. Talk with your primary care provider to see if they think you need one of these tests.
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Early Signs And Symptoms Of Diabetes
1. Frequent urination
When your blood sugar is high, your kidneys expel the excess blood sugar, causing you to urinate more frequently. One of the early warning signs of diabetes is frequent urination that is urgent enough to wake you up to go to the bathroom during sleep.
2. Increased thirst
While your kidneys are working overtime and youre urinating more frequently, valuable fluids will be pulled from your tissues. Frequent urination will make you feel constantly thirsty.
3. Fatigue
When your blood sugar is high, your body works hard to get rid of the excess sugar. Not only does this process take a toll on your body, but it also alters the way that your body uses glucose for energy. Excessively high blood sugar, or hyperglycemia, has fatiguing effects among other symptoms. Additionally, the dehydration that accompanies more frequent urination is a common cause of fatigue in diabetics.
4. Blurred vision
High blood sugar can cause damage to the small blood vessels of the eye, resulting in a swollen lens that can cause blurred vision. As blood sugar levels rise and lower, your vision may return to normal or worsen, respectively.
5. Increased hunger
When you have high blood sugar, your body is actively looking to get rid of it. Because your body expels so much of the glucose you’re getting from your food, you may have increased feelings of hunger.
6. Unexplained weight loss
7. Slow healing cuts and wounds
8. Tingling or numbness in the hands or feet
9. Skin discoloration
How Can I Prepare For Pregnancy If I Have Diabetes
If you have diabetes, keeping your blood glucose as close to normal as possible before and during your pregnancy is important to stay healthy and have a healthy baby. Getting checkups before and during pregnancy, following your diabetes meal plan, being physically active as your health care team advises, and taking diabetes medicines if you need to will help you manage your diabetes. Stopping smoking and taking vitamins as your doctor advises also can help you and your baby stay healthy.
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How Can My Diabetes Affect Me During Pregnancy
Hormonal and other changes in your body during pregnancy affect your blood glucose levels, so you might need to change how you manage your diabetes. Even if youve had diabetes for years, you may need to change your meal plan, physical activity routine, and medicines. If you have been taking an oral diabetes medicine, you may need to switch to insulin. As you get closer to your due date, your management plan might change again.
Questions To Ask Your Doctor
- How did I get diabetes?
- If I have diabetes, will my children develop it, too?
- Will I need to take insulin?
- If I dont have a family history of diabetes, can I still get it?
- Can your diabetes get worse even if you do everything right?
- Can I prevent gestational diabetes?
- If I had gestational diabetes while pregnant, will I get type 2 diabetes later?
- Will the babies of a mom with gestational diabetes develop diabetes?
- How can I tell the difference between Charcot foot and gout in my foot?
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What Are The Symptoms Of Type 2 Diabetes
So, how do you know if you have type 2 diabetes? Because the initial symptoms of type 2 diabetes persistent hunger, fatigue, weight loss, excessive thirst, frequent urination, dry mouth, and blurred vision are common and sometimes mild, they often go unnoticed and unreported to healthcare providers.
This suggests that the true impact of the disease is unknown: In fact, according to CDC, 7.3 million adults have the disease but dont know it. As the disease progresses, more dramatic symptoms that require more urgent medical treatment begin to appear.
Your Hands And Feet Fall Asleep A Lot
Neuropathya condition characterized by numbness or weird sensations like pins and needles in your arms, legs, hands, and feetoccurs in more than half of people with type 2 diabetes, according to a 2017 Diabetes Care review.
Why so common? Diabetes reduces blood flow to your extremities and, over time, damages your blood vessels and nerves, Kellis says.
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What Should I Do If I Think I Have Type 2 Diabetes
If you notice any of these symptoms on a regular basis, you may want to schedule an appointment with your doctor. The more symptoms you have, the sooner you should be seen. The earlier you can catch diabetes, the less likely you are to experience future complications from it.
When you see your doctor, they will run a blood test to look at your blood glucose and hemoglobin A1C levels. You may also be asked to take an oral glucose tolerance test. This test requires you to drink a very sugary beverage and then have your blood sugar measured over a period of a few hours.
When you have diabetes, your body cant use sugar properly, which causes sugar to build up in your blood. This is what the blood glucose test measures. A certain amount of that sugar will stick to the outside of your red blood cells. This is what the A1C number measures. While your sugar levels can go up and down throughout the day, your A1C takes longer to change. It represents your average blood sugar levels over the last 2 to 3 months.
If your test results show you have diabetes, your doctor will most likely start you on a medication called to help manage your blood sugar levels. They might suggest changing your diet and starting an exercise routine, too. You may also need to meet with an endocrinologist, a doctor who will focus on treating your diabetes. Their knowledge about diabetes will help make sure you get the most personalized care and treatment.
You Never Stop Drinking Water
With all that peeing, dehydration is a very real possibility. And, to make matters worse, some patients who dont know they have diabetes quench their thirst with sugary drinks like soda or juice, which adds to their blood sugars, Goundan says. Signs of dehydration include dark-colored urine, a drop in weight, and extreme thirst.
Sound familiar? Talk to your doc about this potential symptom of diabetes, especially if it occurs in tandem with lots of bathroom breaks.
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Type 2 Diabetes Risk Factors
You may be high risk for developing Type 2 diabetes if you:
- Are overweight or obese
- Were previously diagnosed with gestational diabetes, depression, or polycystic ovary syndrome
- You gave birth to a baby that weighed nine or more pounds.
If you are Black, Hispanic, Native American, Latino, or Asian, you are at a higher risk for Type 2 diabetes and gestational diabetes.
Back Upremind Me What Diabetes Is Again
Diabetes isn’t just one disease. There are actually three types of diabetes: type 1, type 2, and gestational diabetes. Most people with diabetes have type 2it happens when your body doesn’t use insulin well and is unable to keep your blood sugar stable, per the CDC.
Type 1 diabetes is much less commononly about 5 percent of those with diabetes have type 1and it’s essentially an autoimmune disease where your body stops making insulin at all .
And gestational diabetes occurs in pregnant womenit usually goes away after you give birth, but it can increase your likelihood of developing type 2 diabetes later on, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases .
All three types of diabetes can easily be detected though a blood test. The test, essentially, checks to see if your blood glucose is too high. But be warned: You can’t diagnose yourselfnot even with an OTC blood glucose meter, per the NIDDK.
Unfortunately, many people are walking around with undiagnosed diabetes or prediabetes because the symptoms are super-subtle, says Poorani Goundan, M.D., an endocrinologist at Boston Medical Center.
These sneaky diabetes symptoms might indicate that it’s time to head into your doctor’s office for a test.
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Your Vision’s Getting Increasingly Blurry
Blurry vision is a commonand often ignoreddiabetes symptom in women. What does diabetes have to do with your vision? Kellis explains that fluid can form in your eye’s lens as sugar levels increase .
Diabetes can cause significant, unexplained weight loss. Think: 10 or 20 pounds.
A buildup of fluid in the eye blurs vision, causes nearsightedness, and sends many people to the optometrist for a new glasses or contacts prescription.
Fortunately, getting your blood sugar levels under control can clear up blurred vision, she adds.
If Symptoms Are Present Now What
You see, most of the symptoms of diabetes are things that pretty much happen to almost everyone from time to time. If symptoms keep appearing it is important to not ignore them. Ignoring the symptoms is not doing you a favour.
How do you know if you actually have diabetes? The answer is simply to be vigilant and aware of whats going on in your body. Whenever in doubt you should talk to your personal doctor.
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Determining If You Have Borderline Diabetes
Prediabetes is a silent condition, so getting a regular wellness checkup is important for early detection. If you think you might have borderline diabetes, discuss your concerns with your doctor.
If your doctor is concerned you may have prediabetes, theyll most likely perform a hemoglobin A1c test or oral glucose tolerance test .
HbA1c is an indicator of your blood sugar patterns over the last two to three months, so its often a better overall picture than a single fasting blood sugar check. An HbA1c level between 5.7 and 6.4 indicates prediabetes.
looked into how lifestyle changes could help prevent diabetes. What they found should give people at risk of diabetes a lot of hope.
With modest weight loss and exercise, study participants reduced their risk of developing diabetes by 58 percent over three years.
The power of healthy food and exercise habits cant be overstated. Take charge of your health by focusing on simple dietary and lifestyle changes.
Symptoms Of Type 1 Diabetes Onset In Adults
When an adult is diagnosed with diabetes, they are often mistakenly told that they have type 2 diabetes. This is because there may be a lack of understanding by some doctors that type 1 diabetes can start at any age, and in people of every race, shape and size. People with type 1 diabetes who have elevated blood glucose and classic risk factors for type 2 diabetes, such as being overweight or physically inactive, are often misdiagnosed. It can also be tricky because some adults with new-onset type 1 diabetes are not sick at first. Their doctor finds an elevated blood sugar level at a routine visit and starts them on diet, exercise and an oral medication.
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How To Know If You Have Type 2 Diabetes And How To Reverse It
The initial symptoms often go unnoticed.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 32 million Americans have type 2 diabetes, a condition in which the bodys cells have become resistant to the effects of insulin. But how do you know if you have type 2 diabetes?
First off, lets nail down what type 2 diabetes is. Since insulin is responsible for ushering glucose into cells for fuel, the resistance to insulin leads to excess levels of glucose in the bloodstream. This elevated blood glucose leads to a wide range of health problems.
The good news: Lifestyle interventions focused on diet and exercise can reduce weight and improve diabetes management, says Brad Bale, M.D., co-author of Beat the Heart Attack Gene: The Revolutionary Plan to Prevent Heart Disease, Stroke, and Diabetes . Indeed, studies show up to 98 percent of people can prevent or reverse type 2 diabetes with lifestyle changes.