diabetes
Diabetes is a disease in which the patient's blood glucose, or blood sugar, levels are too high. Glucose comes from the foods the patient eats. Insulin is a hormone that helps the glucose get into your patient's cells to give them energy.
Signs & Symptoms
Common symptoms of diabetes:
Risk Factors
Risk factors for diabetes depend on the type of diabetes.
Communicable / Non-communicable
Non-communicable
Signs & Symptoms
Common symptoms of diabetes:
- Urinating often
- Feeling very thirsty
- Feeling very hungry - even though you are eating
- Extreme fatigue
- Blurry vision
- Cuts/bruises that are slow to heal
- Weight loss - even though you are eating more (type 1)
- Tingling, pain, or numbness in the hands/feet (type 2)
Risk Factors
Risk factors for diabetes depend on the type of diabetes.
- Type 1 diabetes risk factors:
- A parent or sibling has type 1 diabetes
- exposure to a viral illness likely play some role in type 1 diabetes
- Sometimes family members of people with type 1 diabetes are tested for the presence of diabetes autoantibodies. If you have these autoantibodies, you have an increased risk of developing type 1 diabetes. But not everyone who has these autoantibodies develops diabetes
- These include low vitamin D consumption, early exposure to cow's milk or cow's milk formula, and exposure to cereals before 4 months of age. None of these factors has been shown to directly cause type 1 diabetes
- Certain countries, such as Finland and Sweden, have higher rates of type 1 diabetes
- Type 2 diabetes risk factors:
- Overweight or obesity
- Lack of physcal activity
- Parent or sibiling with type 2 diabetes
- Certain races including blacks, Hispanics, American Indians and Asian-Americans are at higher risk
- Age. Your risk increases as you get older.
- High blood pressure: over 140/90 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg)
- Low levels of "good" cholesterol
- Increased risk of coronary art disease (chest pain, heart attack, stroke)
- Tingling in limbs
- Numbness in limbs
- Burning pain in limbs
- Naseau
- Vomiting
- Kidney failure, dialysis, kindney transplant
- Blindness and other vision complications (cataracts, glaucoma)
- Poor blood flow to the feet
- Cuts
- Blisters
- Toe, foot or leg amputation
- Skin problems such as bacterial and fungal infections
- Hearing problems
- Type 2 diabetes may increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease.
Communicable / Non-communicable
Non-communicable