Diabetes is a disease in which a person has high blood sugar level either due to underproduction of the hormone called insulin. Insulin is the hormone which helps the glucose get to the body\'s cells, or because his or her body does not react adequately to the insulin produced or even rejects it. If there is not enough insulin, it is called type 1 diabetes, and if body is resistant to its own insulin, it is type 2 diabetes. In both cases, body will have obvious reaction to this problem and symptoms will be pretty evident. If these types of diabetes are untreated, the effects of type 2 diabetes can result in death.
Symptoms od type 2 diabetes sometimes develop for years and a person is not aware of the disease. First of the symptoms is the need for frequent urinating. The reason for this is higher levels of glucose in the blood stream which cannot be filtered back to the blood from kidneys. Because of this, kidneys take too much water from the blood in order to dilute the glucose so the bladder is constantly full.
The second symptom can be related to the previous one. It is unquenchable thirst provoked by kidneys\' increased drawing out water of the blood. If a person urinates more often, she becomes dehydrated more quickly so she must compensate the lost water by taking more of it in. Besides being thirsty, a diseased person may be hungry since their cells do not have enough sugar to give the body enough energy, it sends the brain the signal for food.
The symptom more connected to type 1 diabetes is losing weight. In this case the body does not produce insulin so the body does not have enough sugar which gives it energy. It begins to use muscles and fat as source of energy. So people who lose weight without much effort for prolonged period of time should consult a doctor.
Another symptom of diabetes is constant feeling of tiredness. It can be related to the previous one in that the body does not have enough sugar for energy because the glucose stays in the blood stream and does not get to the cells. If the body does not start to break down muscle tissue, the person will feel tired and sleepy.
Symptom that occurs after a certain period without glucose in the blood is neuropathy. It is a state when the excess of glucose in the blood damages the nervous system, especially arms and legs. Since type 2 diabetes advances gradually and person usually does not know he or she has it, this symptom is more frequent with that type. Since levels of glucose in blood can be high for years before a person notices any symptoms, damage caused by it can be significant. However, once the diagnoses is made, all further damage can be prevented and damage already made corrected.
Further signs of diabetes are bad vision, frequent skin infections due to dryness or itchiness, or cuts that will not heal for a long time, also areas of dark skin in the armpits and on he neck. The cause for this is typically insulin resistance.
If a person notices any of the signs above, he or she should see a doctor who will then take all symptoms into consideration and make a diagnosis.
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