About 75% of Americans have some sort of chronic illness, defined by the Centers for Disease Control as a health problem that lasts more than a year and limits a person’s functioning or requires ongoing medical care.
This includes a range of diseases, including diabetes, which affects about 40 million people in the United States.
“Diabetes, in general, is a disorder in which blood sugar is high and the body doesn’t have enough insulin, which is a hormone that lowers blood sugar,” said Dr. Lisa Swartz Topor, director of the pediatric endocrinology program at Rhode Island Hospital and its Hasbro Children’s.
There are two main types of diabetes: Type 1, “which is the most common form in pediatric patients,” Swartz Topor said. “There is a destruction of the body’s ability to produce insulin.”
Then there’s “type 2 diabetes, which is more common in adults; the body is still able to produce insulin, especially early in the disease, but not enough insulin to meet its needs,” she explained.
In the United States, about 95% of diabetes cases are type 2, according to the CDC.
There are treatments available for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, such as GLP-1 medications. Although there is no cure, the condition can still be managed to avoid more serious complications.
“For any form of diabetes, the end result is higher sugar levels and high blood sugar levels…high sugars, over time, can cause damage to different organs in the body, like the eyes or the kidneys or the heart, as well as other things,” Swartz Topor said.
Permanent damage can be delayed (or stopped altogether) if diabetic patients follow their doctor’s treatment advice.
“If we can keep blood sugar levels closer to the target range…this target organ damage is less likely to occur and will occur later,” Swartz Topor said.
Although adults can have diabetes screening tests (for example, the routine A1C blood test that measures blood sugar), it’s still important to know the concerning signs so you can contact your doctor.
Below, doctors share the diabetes symptoms they really want you to know about:
1. Frequent urination and increased thirst.
“For type 1 diabetes, the classic symptoms… (are) increased thirst and increased frequency of urination, especially large urination volumes,” Swartz Topor said. Type 1 also tends to be more symptomatic.
As for type 2, it “can be very slow, so someone can have it for quite a long time without even realizing it,” she noted.
Even so, type 2 diabetes can also cause a lot of thirst and urination, said Dr. Archana Sadhu, an endocrinologist at Houston Methodist Diabetes Associates. “This is common for type 1 and type 2 because it comes from high blood sugar levels,” Sadhu noted.
2. Fatigue and weight loss.
“You may also feel tired or just lack energy,” Sadhu said. “Lack of concentration is another, and just feeling bad.”
Weight loss, accompanied by an increase in appetite, may also occur. As Sadhu explains, “Weight loss may be something you see due to frequent urination due to high blood sugar; there will also be high urine sugar, and patients lose calories and weight as a result.”
These symptoms can also occur in type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
3. Thickening of the skin in the neck or groin.
Increased urination, thirst, fatigue, and weight loss tend to be the most common signs of diabetes, but other changes can also occur. With type 2 diabetes, people can develop thickened skin in the neck, groin or armpits, called acanthosis nigricans, Swartz Topor said.
This appears as thickening or darkening of the skin around skin folds. It even looks a little like dirt. “It could be a sign of prediabetes or diabetes,” she added.
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3. The vision changes.
Many problems can cause vision loss, but sudden changes in your vision may be a sign of diabetes.
“When sugars are very high, it can temporarily change the shape of the lens in your eye, which can lead to blurred vision,” Swartz Topor said. “There are a million possible causes of blurred vision, but if it’s new, it’s worth seeing someone.”
This can occur in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, Swartz Topor added.
4. Recurrent yeast infections.
Recurrent yeast infections are another potential sign of diabetes, Swartz Topor said.
This is true for both children and adults, but Swartz Topor pointed out that yeast infections are very unusual, particularly if a child is no longer in diapers and has not yet reached puberty.
“This could be a sign of high sugars, because yeast loves sugar,” she said.
There are certain risk factors for diabetes, as well as ways to reduce your risk.
Certain lifestyle and genetic factors put certain groups of people at higher risk of developing diabetes.
“The most important thing would be family history, and that’s very important for type 2 diabetes, but also for type 1 diabetes,” Sadhu said. If you have a family history, it’s worth talking to your doctor to make sure you get the appropriate tests.
For type 2 diabetes, obesity is also a risk factor, as is a sedentary lifestyle, Sadhu noted, “in which we don’t use glucose and burn it as we should.”
“Dietary intake…eating high-carbohydrate foods, highly processed foods with simple carbohydrates, are all risk factors for type 2 diabetes,” she added.
Making healthy changes to your diet and exercise habits can reduce your overall diabetes risk by 50%, she noted. This might mean eating more fruit, more vegetables, drinking water instead of juice, and exercising.
It’s never too late to make healthy changes, Sadhu said, but it’s even more valuable to adopt these habits in the younger ones in your life.
If you’re diagnosed with diabetes, both doctors emphasize that there are many treatments available, as well as exciting advances in development.
Managing diabetes can seem intimidating, but, again, it’s important to do so for your long-term health. Consider talking to your doctor, or even a dietitian, about prevention or treatment so you can make the health decisions that are right for your body, Swartz Topor said.
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