What are the symptoms of diabetes?

Many of my patients are truly surprised by their diagnosis of type 2 diabetes.  Unless your blood glucose levels are very high you will not have symptoms, which is why about one-third of individuals with diabetes are undiagnosed.
The most common symptoms of diabetes are: frequent urination, extreme thirst, and blurred vision. But before those symptoms occur individuals may notice that they don't have much energy, they are tired all of the time, especially after a heavy meal.  Are you falling asleep in the chair immediately after eating lunch or dinner?  Have you noticed that cuts or sores take a long time to heal?  These are other symptoms of diabetes than many individuals totally ignore, they think because they are getting older they don't have much energy and cuts do take longer to heal.
Diabetes is a subtle disease, our bodies try very hard to keep our blood glucose levels at normal levels but eventually the demand for more and more insulin is overwhelms our pancreases  and suddenly blood glucose levels begin to rise.
Today we actually are actively trying to identify individuals who have pre-diabetes, with the hope that if we can have these individuals make a few simple lifestyle changes we can actually prevent them from developing diabetes.  Diabetes is diagnosed by a either a fasting blood glucose level or a hemoglobin A1C test that determines an average blood glucose over the past three months.  A fasting blood glucose level should be less than 100 mg/dl, pre-diabetes diagnosis is 100-125 mg/dl, and a diabetes diagnosis is 126 mg/dl and above.  If your doctor does an A1C test (this test measures the sugar-coating on your red blood cells, these cells live for 3 months so it provides a 3 month average).  A normal A1C level is below 5.7 the diagnosis of pre-diabetes  is made at 5.7-6.4 % and diabetes at 6.5%.
If you are overweight, have a family history of diabetes, have high blood pressure or elevated cholesterol, are of American Indian, African-American, Hispanic, or Pacific Islander descent you should be screened yearly.
We can prevent diabetes by losing 5-7% of our body weight, we don't have to lose a lot to make a difference and to walk for 30 minutes 5 days a week.
So I encourage you to begin a physical activity program today. You do not have to become an athlete, just start moving - march in place, sit in the chair and march while watching tv commercials, dance, garden, do water aerobics.  Find something you enjoy.  Physical activity will not only prevent diabetes, it will  reduce your risk of heart disease, it will prevent depression, it will improve your energy levels, and it will make you feel better.
Keep Healthy,
Kathy Gold