Do you know someone who has type 2 diabetes? When they were first told that they had it, did they have a suspicion that something was wrong, or were they taken completely by surprise? Oftentimes we are the first to know if something is out of balance inside our bodies but sometimes a health condition can sneak up on us. Other times, we know we feel unwell in general, but we don’t know the specific cause, or we assume that it is nothing too serious, and we postpone being seen by our healthcare provider. By the time we get around to making an appointment, it is no longer so easy to ignore the signs and symptoms.
Are you aware of some of the more common signs of type 2 diabetes? It helps if you know what to be on the lookout for, so that if you start to experience a few of them you know to schedule an appointment with your healthcare practitioner. They will be able to help you evaluate what is going on as well as order some tests and help you figure out what to do from that point forward.
One of the most common symptoms which can indicate type 2 diabetes is increased thirst. It’s not just that you feel extra thirsty when you are hot or after exercise. The thirst which accompanies type 2 diabetes is impossible to satisfy. As soon as you take a drink, you will want another. You will start carrying a bottle of water with you wherever you go. At first glance, this might seem like a good thing. After all, you’re increasing your intake of water, and that is beneficial for your body. Hooray for hydration, right? Staying properly hydrated means that your organ systems work at their best possible levels and your hair and skin glow when they are properly hydrated, too.
For a healthy person, drinking lots of water is a good thing. Their body will use what they need and shed the excess. But for a person with diabetes, the constant, insatiable thirst is a sign that something is wrong. And you will have to visit the restroom more often as well. You might see that as a natural outcome of drinking lots of water, but in reality, increased urination is also a sign of type 2 diabetes. When the body doesn’t make enough insulin, it doesn’t break down the sugars which are consumed.
That extra sugar just accumulates in the body and hangs out, so to speak. But the body works very hard to get rid of it, by signaling the kidneys to produce more urine, and then some of the extra sugar is shed in the urine. It sounds like a nice backup plan, but it cannot work out like that forever. They kidneys cannot keep up with the demand to make all that extra urine, because it is too much work and stresses them out. What’s more, only a portion of the extra sugar is shed this way, not all of it. Your body needs help to get back into balance so it can process sugar the way it is meant to.