14 Signs and Symptoms of Diabetes
Are you constantly thirsty, using the bathroom more often, or experiencing unusual tiredness? These experiences might seem minor, but they could be early warning signs of diabetes.
Most of your food is converted into sugar, and your pancreas releases insulin to facilitate sugar entry in your cells for energy. When this process doesn’t work properly, sugar builds up in your blood, potentially leading to health issues when unmanaged.
Diabetes is a condition that can silently harm your body and result in serious long-term complications affecting multiple organ systems. Poor blood sugar control increases the risk of heart, blood vessels, nerves, kidneys, eyes, and skin complications, which can be life-threatening if untreated.
Common Symptoms of Diabetes
Diabetes can develop gradually or appear suddenly, with symptoms varying in onset and severity. Many people may not recognize the warning signs until it’s too late and complications are already present.
Frequent Urination
If you find that you need to use the bathroom every couple of hours, wake up multiple times during the night, or need to urinate frequently after consuming sugary foods or drinks—this may be an early sign of diabetes.
Polyuria happens when high blood sugar levels put extra strain on your kidneys as they try to filter the blood and regulate sugar. When your kidneys can’t reabsorb all the filtered glucose, it causes increased urine production to facilitate excretion from the body.
These changes become more noticeable during inactivity, illness, or stress. You might also feel like your bladder isn’t fully empty after urinating, experience a stronger urge to go, or have difficulty holding it in.
Excessive Thirst
When blood sugar levels increase, you may experience an intense, unquenchable desire to drink water, different from ordinary thirst despite increased fluid intake.
This excessive thirst, known as polydipsia, occurs due to increased fluid loss from urination related to your body’s attempts to eliminate excess glucose from the blood.
Despite drinking plenty of water, your mouth may remain dry, accompanied by a continuous craving for fluids. This symptom can be particularly noticeable at night, sometimes prompting you to keep water by your bedside and wake up frequently to drink.
Increased Hunger
When you have diabetes, your body can’t use the sugar in your blood efficiently for energy, so your brain keeps telling you to eat more to provide energy for the cells, even though the glucose level in your blood is already high.
Diabetic polyphagia causes an excessive and uncontrollable appetite, often leading to overeating. You may also notice an intense hunger just 1-2 hours after eating a complete meal.
You might require larger portions to feel satisfied or wake up hungry at night, creating a frustrating cycle of constant eating without relief.
Unexplained Weight Loss
Despite increasing the size of your meals due to increased hunger, you might experience unexpected weight loss, which can occur gradually or rapidly over weeks to months.
Unlike typical weight loss from eating less, diabetes-related weight loss can happen even when food intake is increased. You may first notice your clothes feel looser, even without making weight-loss modifications to your diet or exercise routine.
Those who are initially looking to lose weight may misinterpret this as their weight-loss efforts being efficient while not being aware that it may be due to diabetes.
Fatigue & Weakness
When blood sugar levels are unbalanced, your body has difficulty turning food into energy, causing you to feel drained even after getting enough sleep and rest.
Diabetes-related fatigue often differs from regular tiredness—it can cause persistent exhaustion, sudden energy crashes, and difficulty completing physical and mental tasks. This fatigue can be unpredictable and may not improve with rest.
Muscle weakness may also develop, making movement and activities feel more strenuous. In some cases, this tiredness can worsen after meals due to fluctuations in blood sugar levels, further contributing to feelings of exhaustion.
Blurred Vision
Diabetes can damage the blood vessels in the eyes, leading to vision problems and, in severe cases, blindness. High blood sugar levels cause thicker blood consistency that results in inflammation, leakage, and poor circulation, which affect different parts of the eye.
The increased blood consistency increases pressure on the small blood vessels in the eye, weakening them and making them prone to damage. The stress caused by diabetes also increases the risk of capillary blockages and permanent damage to your eyesight.
In addition, high blood sugar levels disrupt the fluid balance in your body, drawing excess fluid into the lenses of your eyes. This swelling affects how light is focused in your eyes, leading to temporary blurriness or distortion.
Your vision clarity may fluctuate with changes in blood sugar levels—text may appear fuzzy sometimes, objects may seem out of focus, and your eyesight may sharpen or worsen unpredictably throughout the day.
These fluctuations can interfere with daily activities such as reading, driving, or using digital screens. You may also notice that your prescription glasses no longer provide consistent clarity.
Additional Symptoms in Type 2 Diabetes
Type 2 diabetes doesn’t just affect blood sugar levels—it can also lead to subtle yet progressive changes in the body. Many of these symptoms may not be immediately associated with diabetes, but ignoring them could delay diagnosis and treatment.
Slow-Healing Wounds
If cuts or sores take longer to heal, high blood sugar may be disrupting your body’s healing process. Small wounds may take weeks to close due to poor blood circulation, making infections and other complications more likely.
This issue is common on the feet and lower legs, where poor blood consistency further slows healing. The affected area may remain red, swollen, or warm, and the surrounding skin might appear shiny, feel tight, or become increasingly tender.
Sometimes, the skin around the wound may darken or develop a bluish or blackish tint, signaling impaired oxygen supply or tissue damage. Additionally, the skin may harden or thicken, increasing the risk of developing deeper ulcers.
Dark Skin Folds and Creases
Dark, velvety, thick skin patches on the knees, neck, armpits, elbows, or groin could indicate acanthosis nigricans. The affected skin may thicken, develop a slightly rough texture, and sometimes develop small skin tags.
This happens when insulin resistance causes your body to produce excess insulin, stimulating skin cell growth and leading to these changes. The patches may darken further when blood sugar levels are high and lighten with better control.
Tingling, Numbness or Loss of Sensation
Persistent high blood sugar levels in Type 2 diabetes can damage your nerves, leading to a condition known as diabetic neuropathy.
This damage typically begins in the distal nerves, affecting your feet and potentially spreading to your hands. You might first notice a pins-and-needles sensation in your feet that gradually moves up your legs.
As the condition progresses, numbness can make it harder to feel temperature changes or pain, increasing the risk of unnoticed injuries.
Frequent Infections
High blood sugar can negatively affect your immune response due to the challenges in blood circulation, making infections more frequent and harder to manage. Slow-healing open wounds and impaired skin integrity further increase the risk.
Bacterial infections often cause redness, swelling, or tenderness, particularly in moisture-prone areas like the armpits, groin, and between the toes. Similarly, yeast infections thrive in these environments, with women experiencing more frequent vaginal yeast infections.
Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are also more common, as excess sugar in the urine encourages bacterial growth in the soft tissues. This can cause frequent urination, a burning sensation, or cloudy, strong-smelling urine.
Moreover, this condition can increase the risk of gum infections, which can lead to redness, swelling, or bleeding when brushing.
Symptoms Specific to Type 1 Diabetes
When blood sugar rises to dangerous levels, your body sends distress signals that should never be ignored. Identifying these warning signs could mean the difference between recovery and a life-or-death situation, especially in children, teenagers, and young adults.
Nausea, Vomiting, or Abdominal Pain
For individuals with Type 1 diabetes, prolonged high blood sugar can create a dangerous imbalance in the body, leading to severe digestive issues and serious complications.
The earliest sign is persistent upper abdominal discomfort, which remains constant and gradually worsens over time. This pain does not improve with rest, position changes, or home remedies.
Nausea builds gradually over hours or days and often worsens after eating or drinking. As the condition progresses, it eventually triggers vomiting, which may be frequent and difficult to control.
If you vomit a dark, grainy substance resembling coffee grounds, it may indicate internal bleeding and require urgent medical care.
Fruity-Smelling Breath
If family or friends notice a fruity, nail polish remover-like odor on your breath, take their observation seriously—you get used to the smell, so you can’t smell it yourself.
The brain adjusts to frequent and repeated exposure to the smell, making it hard to recognize these changes in your own body odor.
When the body lacks insulin to process sugar for energy, it burns fat and produces ketones that accumulate in the blood. This signals dangerously high blood sugar and requires immediate medical attention.
These chemicals are expelled through the breath, creating the distinct acetone-like odor associated with diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). This breath odor often becomes more noticeable after periods without food or fluid intake and may intensify despite oral hygiene efforts.
Smelly, Cloudy, and Foamy Urine
Sweet-smelling urine is another sign of diabetes you and those around you can identify by its fruity odor. This occurs when excess sugar in the urine emits a sweet smell, indicating high glucose levels.
Visually, this urine may appear darker, cloudy, foamy, and more concentrated than usual. The presence of ants around toilet areas or spots where urine has been accidentally spilled should prompt consideration of diabetes.
In addition to the presence of glucose, the persistent bubbles in your urine may indicate that the kidneys have experienced stress and allow proteins to leak during blood filtration.
Kussmaul breathing
If your blood sugar reaches dangerously high levels, your body may trigger Kussmaul breathing—a pattern of deep, rapid breaths that help expel acid through the lungs. This is a serious warning sign of Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA) that requires immediate medical attention.
This labored breathing requires increased effort, leading to deeper inhalations visible as the neck and chest muscles work harder. It persists even at rest and is often accompanied by audible sighs or gasps, posing a challenge to communication.
