Identifying The Symptoms Of Type 2 Diabetes

A rather large percentage of the American population, about 20 million, has type 2 diabetes. The numbers are increasing day by day. It seems that one of the reasons is the increase in obesity across America. If a person is obese, he/she is more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than if the person remained within normal weight range. The following signs and symptoms are good indicators that a person has type 2 diabetes. If a person experiences two or more of these symptoms a doctor should be called: Fatigue: Unusual tiredness is the result of the body's cells not getting the glucose fuel that they need. Even though there is plenty of glucose in the blood, the body is resistant to its actions. Frequent urination and thirst: This is the result of the body being dehydrated. Even though you may consume adequate amounts of fluid, because of the bodies imbalances, the body is releasing it water content almost as fast as it is being replenished. Blurred Vision: The lenses of the eyes shrink and swell as the blood glucose levels rise and fall. The blurring occurs because the eyes can't adjust quickly enough to the lens changes. Slow healing of skin, gum, and urinary infections: In the diabetic state, the body's glucose state is very high. The white blood cells, which help with healing and defending the body from infection, do not function properly in such an environment. Genital itching: Yeast infections are probably twice as high or more in women with type 2 diabetes. Yeast infections love a high-glucose environment. Numbness in the feet or legs: Numbness occurs when there are extreme elevations of the glucose in the blood stream. This long-term complication of diabetes is called neuropathy. If a person has experienced numbness along with other symptoms of diabetes, the disease has been present for quite a while. Heart disease, stroke, and peripheral vascular disease: Blockage of arteries in the legs occur much more often in type 2 diabetics than in the non-diabetic population. The sinister part of this is that these complications may appear when you are merely glucose intolerant, before you actually have diagnosable diabetes. The symptoms and the signs of type 2 diabetes are very similar in some cases to the symptoms of type 1 diabetes. However, in many ways they are different. The following list shows some of the differences between symptoms in type 1 and type 2 diabetes: Age of onset: People are usually younger when they develop type 1 diabetes as opposed to type 2 diabetes. Even so, the increasing incidence of type 2 diabetes in overweight children is making this difference less useful for separating type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Body weight: People with type 1 diabetes are usually thin or normal in weight, those with type 2 are generally overweight. Level of glucose: Individuals with type 1 diabetes usually have higher glucose levels at the onset of the condition. These measurements at onset are usually between 300 to 400 mg/dl. For type 2 diabetics the levels are usually from 200 to 250 mg/dl. Severity of onset: Type 1 diabetes usually starts out more severe. Type 2 diabetes increases with intensity over time.