To prevent the disease, it is necessary to know the main symptoms of diabetes. Diabetes mellitus is a chronic endocrine disease caused by absolute or partial insulin insufficiency, ie tissue insensitivity to this hormone.
This disease is often called the "silent killer". Statistics show that about 50% of patients are not aware of their problem and continue to lead a normal life, while sugar is slowly destroying their body.
According to the World Health Organization, this disease closes the top three among all diseases, after cardiovascular and oncological pathology. According to their forecasts, the number of patients will double every 15 years.
All this testifies to the need for proper, and most importantly, timely diagnosis and adequate treatment of the disease. Everyone should know the first symptoms of diabetes mellitus in the modern world and be ready to start therapy.
Early signs of illness
Let's look in detail, what can be the symptoms of diabetes? Like any other pathological process, diabetes has an early stage with very extensive symptoms, a peak period and a final stage.
In order not to bring the case to an unfavorable end, it is necessary to suspect the presence of the disease in time and consult a doctor. The first symptoms of diabetes like to be disguised as common colds.
This includes:
- Constant fatigue and desire to sleep.
- Frequent episodes of urination, urinary incontinence, nocturnal urination.
- Significant weight loss for no apparent reason.
- Long healing of small wounds, cuts.
- Decreased sexual activity in men, problems with premature ejaculation.
- Hunger that is difficult to satisfy with the usual portions of food, which occurs even without physical effort.
- Deterioration of vision, blurring and double vision.
- Mild tingling in the tips of the fingers or toes. Injuries to small movements and tactile sensitivity.
- Thirst in diabetes and the desire to drink plenty of fluids. The daily amount of moisture consumed can exceed 3-4 liters.
- Urinary and genital tract infections in women.
As you can see, these symptoms are very non-specific and are often attributed to hard work, stress or colds. But if they start to develop in a person, then the best solution would be to consult a doctor and take a blood test for sugar and glycated hemoglobin>.
Symptoms of the disease in minors
The first symptoms of diabetes mellitus in children in most cases coincide with those in adults. However, there are nuances that you need to know for a timely diagnosis.
The first "bells" for children from 7 years can be:
- Polydipsia or intense thirst. The child, even during normal physical activity, constantly wants to drink.
- Urinary incontinence during sleep in cases when it has not happened before.
- Significant weight loss with adequate nutrition.
- Frequent episodes of nausea and vomiting.
- Problems at school, poor performance, mood swings, aggression.
- Increased skin bacterial diseases (furunculosis, carbuncles, barley and others), constant itching.
- During puberty, girls may develop thrush or other bacterial lesions.
The problem is that parents ignore such signs in their children, which often leads to the appearance of hyperglycemic coma and the development of pronounced complications that are difficult to treat.
It is important to suspect diabetes in very young children as well. They don't know what worries them, but mom or dad must understand their child.
The first symptoms of hyperglycaemia in infants may be the following:
- In the presence of an excellent appetite, the child gains little or no weight.
- Constant restlessness of the baby, which passes only after drinking.
- Occurrence of diaper rash in the groin area, which occurs more often than usual and does not respond to standard treatment.
- The special condition of diapers after drying baby urine - they become as if they are starched.
- Perhaps the formation of sticky stains on the surfaces on which the baby's urine has reached.
- With the acute development of the disease, vomiting, diarrhea, dehydration of the body may occur suddenly.
The ability to suspect illness is critical. Unfortunately, ordinary people sometimes do not fully understand the seriousness of the first signs of diabetes. Due to this incorrect attitude towards oneself and one's health, more than half of the cases of making the correct diagnosis are related to terminal conditions - hyperglycemic coma.
Its symptoms are:
- loss of patient consciousness;
- dry skin;
- drop in blood pressure and rapid heartbeat;
- characteristic odor of acetone from the mouth.
In the presence of such an image, the patient needs urgent hospitalization with adequate drug therapy with insulin.
To prevent the occurrence of such conditions and diseases in general, every citizen should know the first signs and symptoms of diabetes.