African Americans have the highest rate of diabetes, but get this: it’s a preventable disease. We can actually win the fight against it.
Genetic traits, the prevalence of obesity, and insulin resistance all contribute to the risk of diabetes in the African American community. African Americans also have a high rate of diabetic complications, because of poor glycemic control and racial disparities in health care in the USA.
As with most preventable diseases, if you catch them early, then you have a better chance of survival and possibly reversing the disease. Here are symptoms you may not know, but are indicators in pinpointing the disease:
You Have To Go To The Bathroom More
When you have diabetes, your body becomes less efficient at breaking food down into sugar, so you have more sugar sitting in your bloodstream, says Dobbins. Your body gets rid of it by flushing it out in the urine. That’s why you’re going to the bathroom a lot. Most patients aren’t necessarily aware of how often they use the bathroom But one red flag is whether the need to urinate keeps you up at night. Once or twice might be normal, but if it’s affecting your ability to sleep, that could be a symptom to pay attention to.
You’re More Thirsty
Urinating a lot will also make you feel parched. A common symptom Dobbins sees with patients is that they use drinks like juices, soda, or chocolate milk to quench their thirst. These sugary beverages then pack the bloodstream with excess sugar, which can lead to the problem all over again.
You’re Moody and Grumpy
When your blood sugar is out of whack, you just don’t feel well and might become more short-tempered. In fact, high blood sugar can mimic depression-like symptoms. You feel very tired, you don’t feel like doing anything, you don’t want to go out, you just want to sleep. Patients who think they need to be treated for depression, but then they experience mood improvement after their blood sugar normalizes.
Your Vision Is More Blurry Than Usual
In the early stages of diabetes, the eye lens is not focusing well because glucose builds up in the eye, which temporarily changes its shape. “You’re not going blind from diabetes,” Dr. Cypess says he assures patients. “In about six to eight weeks after your blood sugars are stabilized, you’re not going to feel it anymore; the eye will adjust.”
Your cuts and scrapes heal more slowly
The immune system and the processes that help the body heal don’t work so well when your sugar levels are high.
You’re Tired All The Time
Of course you’re exhausted every now and then. But ongoing fatigue is an important symptom to pay attention to; it might mean the food you’re eating for energy isn’t being broken down and used by cells as it’s supposed to. In many cases of type 2 diabetes, your sugar levels can be elevated for awhile, so these symptoms could come on slowly.
Your Feet Tingle
Elevated sugar levels can cause complications well before you realize you have diabetes. One of these is mild nerve damage, which can cause numbness in your feet.
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