1. Frequent Urination
Also known as polyuria, frequent and/or excessive urination is a sign that your blood sugar is high enough to start to spill into the urine. Because your kidneys can’t keep up with the high glucose levels, they allow some of that sugar to go into your urine, where it draws additional water, making you have to urinate often.
2. Extreme Thirst
Extreme thirst is one of the first noticeable symptoms of diabetes for some. It’s tied to high blood sugar levels, which cause thirst, and is exacerbated by frequent urination. Often, drinking won’t satisfy the thirst.
3. Increased Hunger
Intense hunger, or polyphagia, is also an early warning sign of diabetes. Your body uses the sugar in your blood to feed your cells. When the cells can’t absorb the sugar (because of a lack of insulin), your body looks for more sources of fuel, causing persistent hunger.
4. Nerve Pain or Numbness
You might experience tingling or numbness in your hands, fingers, feet, and toes. This is a sign of diabetic neuropathy, or nerve damage. You are most likely to experience this after several years of living with diabetes.
5. Slow Healing Wounds
There are several reasons why a wound will heal more slowly if you have diabetes. Poor circulation, the effects of high blood sugar on blood vessels, and immunodeficiency are just a few. If you experience frequent infections or wounds that are slow to heal, it could be an early symptom.
6. Blurred Vision
Blurred vision occurs early in unmanaged diabetes. It can be a sign of high blood sugar levels, which cause fluid to shift into the lens of the eye. This usually resolves when blood sugar levels normalize.
7. Dark Skin Patches
Dark discoloration in the folds of your skin is called acanthosis nigricans, and is another early warning sign of type 2 diabetes. They are most common in the armpits, neck, and groin regions.
8. Fatigue
Excessive tiredness can develop when body constantly compensates for the lack of glucose in the cells. Fatigue also occurs as your sleep gets interrupted by the urgency to urinate. People start experiencing lower levels of energy and are chronically not feeling well.
9. Sexual Dysfunction
Diabetes also damages blood vessels and nerves in the sex organs, which can lead to different sexual problems. Women can experience vaginal dryness and men can have difficulty with erection. 35 to 75 percent of men with diabetes suffer from impotence.
10. Headaches
A headache can develop due to elevated blood sugar levels and is considered an early sign of hyperglycemia (high blood glucose). The symptom gets worse as condition worsens.
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