Diabetes is a metabolic disease causing high blood pressure. When someone has diabetes, the person’s body either does not make enough of insulin or it can’t make use of insulin effectively. There are many common symptoms of diabetes which include increased hunger, frequent urination, increased thirst, and extreme fatigue. However, there are also some unusual symptoms of diabetes that we need to know. So, that’s what we will be talking about in the following array of the article.
12 Unusual Symptoms Of Diabetes:
It is reported from the CDC or Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the year 2017 that 30.3 million adults in the US suffer from diabetes.(1) With so many people suffering from the condition, it is thus important for each one of us to know about some of the unusual symptoms of diabetes that might actually be early signs of diabetes.
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There Is A Darker Skin On The Neck:
One of the possible warning sign of this condition is that there develops dark patches on your skin, especially around your neck. These dark patches on the skin might be widespread, or only be noticeable in the creases of skin. You might also feel velvety or thicker at the place around the affected skin.
This condition is known as AN or acanthosis nigricans. Sometimes it is also present on the armpits and groin too. Such a condition is more common with patients with type 2 diabetes and those who have darker complexions. This occurs when high levels of insulin in the patient’s bloodstream causes the skin cells to reproduce at a faster than normal.
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Changes In Vision:
Diabetes can also show another unusual symptom and that is changes in vision. So vision changes might also be a warning sign of diabetes. High level of blood sugar can affect each part of your body, including your eyes. This can alter fluid levels in the affected person’s eyes; thus resulting in blurry vision, swelling, or difficulty focusing on objects.
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Recurrent Infections:
If you have diabetes your immune system gets weaken and you become more susceptible to various illnesses. This might lead you to have recurrent infections. These infections could be yeast infections, vaginal infections, skin infections, or bladder infections.
When you have excess of sugar in your blood, WBCs have difficulty travelling through your bloodstream and this lowers the ability of your body to fight against infections.
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Irritability:
People with diabetes have a frequent feeling of diabetes or having some sort of changes in their mood. This is because unmanaged diabetes triggers rapid shifts in the blood sugar and this contributes to rapid shifts in the mood and also can impact how you feel.
However, it must be mentioned that irritability and changes in mood are quite temporary and you get back to normal soon the blood sugar levels get stable.
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Sexual Dysfunction:
Erectile dysfunction is one more unusual symptom of diabetes and it affects typically males suffering from type 2 diabetes. This condition makes it difficult for people to achieve an erection.
When there is high blood sugar and it damages the nerves and the blood vessels that are known to carry blood to the penis, there arise sexual problems.
It must also be noted that women can suffer from sexual dysfunction and this can result in low arousal and also poor lubrication. But, research on sexual problems related to diabetes in women is quite less conclusive as compared to men.
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Itching:
We must also let you know that there is another unusual symptom of diabetes and that is itching. When blood sugar increases in an undiagnosed diabetes, it damages nerve fibers throughout the body and this damage can actually happen anywhere; however it affects typically the nerves of your feet and hands. This damage of nerves can result in itching.
Moreover, there can also be a damage of blood vessels because of an elevated blood sugar and this can actually reduce circulation in the limbs of the affected persons. This in turn can dry out your skin resulting in peeling and itching.
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Weight Loss:
When your body does not produce or it cannot make use of insulin properly, your cells do not get enough of glucose so as to use for energy.
This is when the body starts burning fat and also muscle mass for energy and it can result in a sudden drop of our overall body weight.
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Pain In Your Limbs:
When you have diabetes you can also have pain in your limbs. This occurs because of the diabetic neuropathy that might result in complications such as cramps or pains. You can experience pain in your legs or your feet, or might have a tingling or a sort of burning sensation or even numbness in your limbs.
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Dry Mouth:
We can have dry mouth even when we do not have diabetes. However, patients with diabetes are more affected with this condition of dry mouth because high blood sugar reduces the saliva flow. Too little of saliva in mouth can cause tooth decay or gum disease. Dry mouth might also occur as a side effect of some medicines that are used for treating diabetes.
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Fruity Smelling Breath:
Another unusual symptom of diabetes is fruity smelling breath. It is also known as diabetic ketoacidosis. One must note that diabetic ketoacidosis is a serious complication of diabetes and when someone believes that they have it, they should check with their doctor.
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Nausea:
Nausea along with vomiting is some other unusual symptoms of diabetes and both of these symptoms can occur because of neuropathy.
Nerve damage might prevent your body from properly moving the food from your stomach to your intestine. This can cause food to back up in your stomach, and thus lead to nausea and at times vomiting.
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Healing Takes Time:
It takes time to heal when you have a cut or wound or any bug bite. Hyperglycemia, which is high blood sugar, reduces the amount of oxygen that can be delivered to cuts or wounds through your blood stream, thus slowing down the healing process and also lowering the functions of immune system. This can also result in more of frequent illness and colds because of a reduced immune function.
Conclusion:
So, here we talked about some of the unusual symptoms of diabetes. If you are experiencing any of these symptoms just check out with your doctor and go for a proper diagnosis and treatment.
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