You may not have any symptoms for years. You may experience vague symptoms like tiredness, muscle pain, headache, etc. Hence it is also known as ‘silent disease’.
Eventually one may have the following symptoms:
- Frequent urination: As excess glucose present in blood in Diabetes, the kidneys react by flushing it out of the blood and in the urine. This leads to increased urine formation and hence frequent urination..
- Extreme thirst: Due to increase in urination you are likely to be thirsty more often.
- Increased hunger: Glucose is not utilized by your cells due to lack of insulin. Hence you don’t get energy to which your body responds as increased hunger.
- Unexplained weight loss: As your body is not making insulin it searches for another energy source (the cells aren't getting glucose!). Muscle tissue and fat are broken down for energy resulting in weight loss.
- Fatigue: Lack of energy makes you feel tired.
- Numbness: Excessive glucose in the body leads to nerve damage. Hence you may experience tingling and/or numbness in your hands and feet.
- Sores that are slow to heal: When there is more sugar in your body, its ability to heal can be undermined.
- Increased infections: The disease fighting capacity reduces and you are more prone to get infections. Women get urinary and vaginal infections more often.
- Sexual dysfunction among men: Men over 50, you may experience frequent or constant sexual dysfunction (erectile dysfunction).
