Type 2 diabetes is a condition wherein the pancreas is unable to produce enough insulin or when the body cannot use insulin effectively. This causes your blood sugar levels to increase since insulin is a hormone that regulates your blood sugar levels. This eventually leads to hyperglycemia, or high blood sugar levels. And when you have high blood sugar levels persistently, it leads to diabetes. While type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease, type 2 diabetes is a condition that develops due to varying factors, which includes genetics, body weight, physical activity and more.
According to the World Health Organisation, 14% of adults aged 18 years and older were living with diabetes in 2022. Also, the condition was the direct cause of 1.6 million deaths in 2021. Hence, it is extremely important that you manage the condition as it can cause severe damage to the body. One of the ways to treat the condition is recognising the early symptoms of diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes usually begins subtly, with symptoms that can be easily mistaken for other common conditions. Spotting these early signs is very important as it can help in timely intervention, which can eventually help prevent serious health complications.
Early Symptoms Of Type 2 Diabetes
Excessive Thirst and Frequent Urination
One of the early signs of type 2 diabetes is feeling very thirsty all the time and needing to pee more than usual, especially at night. When blood sugar levels are high, your kidneys tend to work overtime to remove the excess sugar by producing more urine, causing dehydration. This dehydration makes you feel even more thirsty, thereby creating a cycle. These symptoms are often mistaken for dehydration, urinary tract infections, or simply drinking too much water. However, this happens because your body is trying to remove sugar from your blood and excess fluids from your tissues.
Feeling Tired and Lacking Energy
A lot of people experience unexplained fatigue or being unusually tired, which can easily be confused with exhaustion, stress, or lack of sleep. In diabetes, this tiredness is a result of the body inability to use sugar properly for energy due to insulin resistance or deficiency. As a result, less energy is produced at the cellular level, leaving you drained. This symptom is often overlooked or attributed to a busy lifestyle or insufficient sleep. However, feeling fatigued persistently despite adequate rest can be an underlying sign of high blood sugar.
Increased Hunger
Feeling hungry constantly, even after eating, can be a confusing symptom. It happens because high blood sugar affects the body's ability to derive energy from food efficiently. Hence, the brain signals for more food when the cells are not getting enough energy. This increased hunger can be confused with overeating, metabolic issues, or diets, ignoring the chances of diabetes. Recognising this symptom as an early sign is important, particularly when combined with other symptoms like thirst and fatigue.
Numbness or Tingling in Hands and Feet
High blood sugar levels can damage nerves and blood vessels over time, leading to numbness, tingling, or a pins-and-needles sensation in the hands and feet. This nerve damage, also known as diabetic neuropathy, can develop gradually, making it easy to dismiss as simple numbness from poor circulation or peripheral nerve issues. However, if this sensation appears along other symptoms like frequent urination or fatigue, it could be an early sign of diabetes affecting the nervous system.
Blurry Vision
Unexplained changes in vision, such as blurriness or occasional visual disturbances, are also early signs of type 2 diabetes. High blood sugar levels can damage the small blood vessels in the eyes, causing fluid to leak into the lens or retina. This can lead to blurry vision. These visual changes are often mistaken for eye strain, age-related vision decline, or other eye problems. If blurriness persists or occurs alongside other diabetes symptoms, you should check your blood sugar levels.
Several early symptoms of type 2 diabetes resemble more common health issues, making it difficult to recognise the disease in its initial stages. Thirst, frequent urination, fatigue, hunger, numbness, and blurred vision are some of these signs that can be confused with dehydration, exhaustion, nerve problems, or eye strain. However, their persistence and combination should prompt people to seek medical advice for blood sugar testing.
Disclaimer: This content including advice provides generic information only. It is in no way a substitute for a qualified medical opinion. Always consult a specialist or your own doctor for more information. NDTV does not claim responsibility for this information.
