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, or by tissue insensitivity to this hormone.
This disease is often called the "silent killer". Statistics show that approximately 50% of patients are unaware of their problem and continue to lead a normal life while sugar slowly destroys their body.
According to the World Health Organization, this disease closes the top three among all diseases, after cardiovascular and oncological pathologies. According to their forecasts, the number of patients will double every 15 years.
All this testifies to the need for correct diagnosis and most importantly in time 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 the disease
Let's look in detail, what might 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 matter to an unfavorable conclusion, it is necessary to suspect in time the presence of the disease and consult a doctor. The first symptoms of diabetes like to disguise themselves as common cold infections.
This includes:
- Constant fatigue and desire to sleep.
- Frequent episodes of urination, urinary incontinence, nocturnal urination.
- A significant decrease in body weight for no apparent reason.
- Long healing time for small wounds, incisions.
- Decreased sexual activity in men, premature ejaculation problems.
- Hunger, which is difficult to saturate with ordinary portions of food, which occurs even without any physical exertion.
- Deterioration of vision quality, blurring and double vision.
- A slight tingling sensation in the tips of the toes or feet. Minor movement violations and tactile sensitivity.
- Thirst in diabetes and desire to drink plenty of fluids. The daily volume of moisture consumed can exceed 3-4 liters.
- Urinary tract and genital infections in women.
As you can see, these symptoms are very non-specific and are often attributed to hard work, stress or cold. But if they were to start developing in a person, then the best solution would be to consult a doctor and do a blood test for glycated sugar and 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 you need to know about a timely diagnosis.
The first "bells" for children from 7 years old can be:
- Polydipsia or strong thirst. The child, even during normal physical activity, constantly wants to drink.
- Urinary incontinence during sleep in cases where this has not happened before.
- A significant decrease in body weight with an adequate diet.
- Frequent episodes of nausea and vomiting.
- Problems at school, poor performance, mood swings, aggression.
- Increased bacterial skin diseases (furunculosis, carbuncle, barley and others), persistent 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 comas and the development of pronounced complications that are difficult to treat.
It is important to be able to suspect diabetes even in very young children. They are not able to show what bothers them, but mom or dad should be able to understand their child.
The first symptoms of hyperglycemia in infants may be the following phenomena:
- In the presence of an excellent appetite, the child is weak or does not gain weight at all.
- The constant disturbance of the baby, which passes only after he drinks.
- The appearance of diaper rash in the groin area, which occurs more often than usual and does not respond to standard treatment.
- A special condition of diapers after drying of children's urine - they become like starch.
- Probably the formation of sticky spots on the surfaces where the baby's urine got.
- With the acute development of the disease, vomiting, diarrhea, dehydration of the body may appear severe.
The ability to suspect disease is critical. Unfortunately, ordinary people sometimes do not fully understand the seriousness of the first signs of diabetes. Due to such an inaccurate attitude towards oneself and one's health, more than half of the cases of making an accurate diagnosis fall into terminal states - hyperglycemic coma.
Its symptoms are:
- loss of patient consciousness;
- dry skin;
- decrease in blood pressure and increase in heart rate;
- characteristic odor of acetone from the mouth.
In the presence of such a picture, the patient requires immediate hospitalization with adequate insulin drug therapy.
To prevent the occurrence of such conditions and diseases in general, every citizen should know the first signs and symptoms of diabetes.