Diabetes mellitus is the most common lifestyle disease of the present times and there are rarely any homes without at least one person who is diabetic. One may become diabetic at any point in life due to various reasons including some underlying disease or improper organ functioning, improper dietary habits, lack of exercise, excessive stress, or genetic and hereditary factors. Thus, it is always good to keep a watch on some changes in the body that would possibly be an indication of diabetes or prediabetic stage. There are a few very clear signs which may be considered as a hint to go for a blood test to find if one is approaching or is already into being a diabetic.
The most important of these are the three P’s. They are the polydipsia, polyphagia and polyuria.
Polydipsia is the increased thirst that is experienced by individuals and polyphagia is excessive hunger. Polyuria is increased frequency of urination. In addition to these primary signs, there are also other symptoms which may indicate an underlying diabetes mellitus.
These are:
Excessive tiredness and weakness of the body with lack of interest and inability to do activities.
Unexplained weight-loss is another symptom where the person loses weight despite eating well and having an increased hunger.
There may be tingling and numbness in the extremities too.
The person may have extreme dryness of skin and non-healing ulcers on any part of the body.
There also maybe chances of repeated infections unlike the person’s normal self previously. A person may have one or more or all of these symptoms and this may be then investigated with proper blood tests to identify any underlying blood sugar variations. Any of these symptoms may also be seen in other disease conditions too. There may also be individuals who would not show any of these signs and still develop diabetes. Hence, a blood test is always necessary to diagnose if it is a case of diabetes mellitus.