What are The Tell Tale Sign of Diabetes?

For Kit, the first sign of diabetes was excessive thirst. She was puzzled but didn't pay attention to the signal. She was diagnosed with diabetes when she was 15.

"What are the signs of diabetes, Kit?" I asked.

She paused for a moment, and counted the symptoms of diabetes known to her.

"12," She replied shortly.

Over the next 1 hour, she went through every single sign of diabetes known to her. She also explained the causes too.

I thought you would like to know about our conversation, so I put together the 12 sign of diabetes from Kit.

Here they are:

Itches and sores particularly around the genital area.

Too much sugar content in the urine lead to itchiness and soreness. However, this sign of diabetes is often misdiagnosed as Vaginal thrush, yeast infection or candidacies.

For those with Vaginal thrush, yeast infection or candidacies, do seek another medical opinion. It's better to be safe.

Hair thinning or hair loss.

Because of the diabetic condition, lost hair is not replaced as fast. The end consequence is obvious hair loss and thinning.

Dry/scratchy skin and easily recurring infection.

This is caused by the high blood sugar level as well as the poor blood circulation.

Gum (periodontal) disease.

Experiencing pain whenever chewing food is a sign of diabetes. For those with more serious gum problems, this may even lead to teeth loss.

To treat gum disease, diabetics must work on controlling the diabetic condition.

Gum disease is the result of too much glucose in the blood, which damages oral health.

Experiencing numbness in limbs.

When nervous system has been damaged by the high sugar content, diabetics may experience this symptom. This usually comes as the later sign of the diabetes.

Frequent urination.

Some times the frequency can be as high as every 60 minutes. This happens as the kidney cannot absorb all the sugar (glucose) in the blood, and so the only way to get rid of the excessive glucose is to flush them out through urine.

Excessive thirst.

Despite drinking a lot of water, and not having too excessive physical training during cool weather period, diabetics still get thirsty easily. This sign of diabetes is closely linked to frequent urination. The cause of excessive thirst is a condition call Hyperglycemia (high blood sugar).

Since the body need more urine to flush out the glucose, the increase in urine production lead to dehydration. Consequently this causes diabetics to get thirsty easily.

Dry mouth.

This is the more serious sign of diabetes. Because of dehydration due to frequent urination, diabetics suffer from the lack of saliva to moist their mouth.

Feeling sluggish.

Getting fatigue easily is another sign of diabetes. Loss of energy (glucose) in the urine resulted in the sluggish behavior of diabetics.

Unexpected weight loss or weight gain.

Rightfully weight loss is good new for diabetics. However unexpected weight loss can spell trouble, as this could be a sign of dehydration.

Another possibility can be muscle loss because of the high glucose content.

Unanticipated weight gain is not a good sign either. It means that the glucose is not converted into useful energy for the body. Instead, because diabetics are resistance to insulin, the glucose easily converts and become fats stored in the body.

Slow healing cuts and bruises due to nerve damage.

Because of poor circulation, wounds on the feet are comparatively harder to heal.

Unclear vision.

Perhaps one of the most dangerous sign of diabetes. When this symptom of diabetes shows up, most of pre-diabetics thought that they were simply too tired.

It's important to stay extra vigilant of this sign of diabetes as blur vision (due to diabetes) can lead to permanent blindness.

The symptoms of diabetes listed in this article is no exhaustive. Therefore, I'll urge readers with any of the sign of diabetes to seek professional medical opinion to confirm.

Get lots of free information on living with diabetes at http://aboutdiabetesinfo.blogspot.com. Here you will find a lot of tips, articles, resources and help on this topic contributed from Jeslyn.