Diabetes - Symptoms, Causes, Types & Diagnosis

A Guide To Diabetes Disease - Symptoms, Causes, Types & Diagnosis

Diabetes is a growing health concern not only among old adults but in youngsters too, as per WHO report, In India, an estimated 77 million individuals over the age of 18 years are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and around 25 million are prediabetic. While diabetes affects individuals of all age groups, it is common among adults because of a variety of reasons such as:

Sedentary Lifestyle
Physiological changes
Eating habits

Blood Glucose is a main source of fuel and energy for the brain, muscle, and tissue cells. When the level of blood sugar increases in the body, Diabetes mellitus (DM) occurs. As people grow, the ability to produce and manage insulin goes down and it causes complications and increases the risks of other severe health issues such as heart diseases, neurological disorders as well as vision issues.

Whether you are diagnosed with diabetes or new to diabetes, getting a depth understanding of diabetes disease, helps you in living a healthy life and helps your doctor in deciding the customized treatment for your problem.

The Most Common Types Of Diabetes Are:

Prediabetes
Type1 diabetes
Type2 diabetes
Gestational diabetes

It’s true about Prediabetes and gestational diabetes that these both are potentially reversible diabetes types:

The prediabetes stage occurs when your blood sugar level is more than normal level but not that enough to be called diabetes.
Gestational diabetes is a type of diabetes that usually occurs in women during the period of pregnancy. But this type of diabetes usually goes away after the delivery.
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that usually occurs when your body is not able to make enough insulin because the immune system attacks and destroys the cells in the pancreas. There is no doubt, that individuals of any age group can develop diabetes disease but children as well as young adults are at a high risk of type 1 diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes is the most common type of diabetes that occurs when your body does not make enough insulin or is not able to use the produced insulin well. This type of diabetes can also occur at any age but mostly in individuals of middle-aged and old age.

Symptoms Of Diabetes Disease

The different types of diabetes have different symptoms, depending on the level of blood sugar. Some general symptoms are:

Increased hunger
Increased thirst
Unexplained weight loss
The extreme level of fatigue and tiredness
Blurry vision
Slow healing
Continuing urination
Irritation
Frequent Mood swings
Aside from the mentioned above symptoms, the increased glucose level causes other health issues and develops the symptoms such as:
Low sex drive
Erectile Dysfunction
Vaginal issues
Urinary Tract Infection etc.

What Are The Causes Of Diabetes Problems?

Various causes increase the level of blood sugar and lead to diabetes as well as other serious health problems.

You are more likely to develop diabetes if you have the following conditions:

Family history of diabetes
Overweight
Sedentary lifestyle
Physical inactivity
High blood pressure
High cholesterol level
Physical damage to the pancreas
Hormonal Imbalance etc.

Complications of Diabetes Disease

Continuous high blood sugar can lead to various kinds of acute and severe complications. Here are some common complications:

Cardiovascular diseases such as Coronary arteries diseases, Chest pain, Heart attack, Stroke, Narrowing of arteries, etc.
Tingling, numbness, pain, or burning sensation in the foot
Damage to the kidneys
Vision loss
Hearing loss
Damage to the feet
Bacterial infection
Fungal infections
Alzheimer’s disease
Depression
Erectile Dysfunction
Dementia

When Do I Need To See The Doctor?

If you are experiencing the symptoms of a diabetes problem, you must go to the doctor for the management of your diabetes problem. The doctor may recommend you multiple tests to diagnose the root cause and the type of diabetes you are suffering from. The diagnosis of the diabetes problem at the initial level helps the doctor in getting timely preventive treatment.

Diabetes Diagnosis Test

Diabetes Diagnosis Test

Every individual who is experiencing the signs of developing diabetes disease should be tested. Diabetes testing helps in the early diagnosis, management, and prevention of your diabetes disease and its associated complications. Your doctor may prescribe you a variety of blood and urine tests depending on various facts such as whether it's symptomatic or asymptomatic or gestational to diagnose and confirm the type of diabetes you are suffering from. Whether it is prediabetes, gestational diabetes, type 1 or type 2 diabetes. The result of the test shows your blood glucose level and the type of diabetes you have.

Random Blood Sugar Test

Doctors use the random blood sugar test to diagnose diabetes when your body develops the symptoms of diabetes. This test measures the blood sugar level at a random time so you do need not to do fasting and may give a blood sample for this test at any time. It is also known as a random plasma glucose test

Fasting Blood Sugar Test

The Fasting blood sugar test also known as the fasting plasma glucose test measures the blood glucose level at a specific period because you can’t eat or drink anything at least for 8 hours before the test. The doctor usually recommends this test in the morning to check the baseline of blood glucose.

HbA1C

The HbA1C also known as A1C, hemoglobin A1C, glycated hemoglobin, and glycosylated hemoglobin test. It measures the blood sugar over the last 3 months and provides the average level of blood glucose. Before recommending this test, your doctor considers various factors such as pregnancy, blood-related disorders, anemia, etc. because these factors can affect the level of blood sugar.

Aside from these tests, in the case of high-risk pregnancy, doctors recommend some tests to diagnose gestational diabetes such as:

Glucose Challenge Test

This glucose challenge test measures the level of your blood sugar after an hour of drinking a sugary liquid. To conduct this test, you need to drink a sugary liquid. The normal result shows that you don’t have gestational diabetes and don’t need any other testing. On the other hand, If the level of blood glucose goes high, then the doctor may recommend further testing like a glucose tolerance test.

Glucose Tolerance Test

The glucose tolerance test requires a minimum of 8 hours of fasting. To conduct this test, the lab technician takes a blood sample to measure the blood glucose level and after that, he gives you a sugary liquid to drink for re-testing the blood sugar level and repeating the same after 2 hours. This test helps doctors in detecting type 2 diabetes, prediabetes, and gestational diabetes.

Result of Diabetes Diagnosis Test

Diagnosis	HbA1C	Fasting blood sugar test	Glucose Tolerance Test	Random blood sugar Test	Random blood sugar Test
Normal	below 5.7%	99 mg/dL or below	139 mg/dL or below	N/A	N/A
Prediabetes	5.7% to 6.4%	100 to 125 mg/dL	140 to 199 mg/dL	N/A	N/A
Diabetes	6.5% or above	126 mg/dL or above	200 mg/dL or above	200 mg/dL or above	135 mg/dL to 140 mg/dL or higher

Conclusion

Diabetes mellitus is a condition that occurs when either your body is not producing insulin or not responding to the insulin properly. The diabetes diseases are classified as Prediabetes, Gestational diabetes, Type1, and type 2 diabetes. Doctors advised various tests to diagnose the diabetes problem and associated complications. Diabetes management requires accurate diagnosis and consistent treatment, so if you or your loved ones experiencing a diabetes problem, then you must contact your doctor.

Ganesh Diagnostic and imaging center is a leading diagnostic center, offering the Ganesh diabetes package to diagnose diabetes disease and its related complications. We have state-of-art techniques and a highly experienced team of pathologists and lab technicians to conduct the test. We ensure accurate result without any quality compromise.