Symptoms of Type 2 Diabetes – Dr. Norman Swan

by | Diabetes

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To know the symptoms of type2 diabetes it is important to regularly check your blood sugar levels by getting blood tests and consulting your doctor, if need be also consult a dietician.

The key thing to know about symptoms of type 2 diabetes is that you may have no symptoms at all, for many years. It’s really important as you get older to get your GP to do either a blood sugar or a fasting blood sugar test as part of your checkup every so often.

That way you can know whether or not there’s a problem and if you have symptoms of type 2 diabetes. Another test that you can talk to your GP about called your HbA1c, also called glycated haemoglobin. It’s a more complicated test which indicates your blood sugar control over the last three months. If that’s getting higher, you’ve got affects of symptoms of type2 diabetes. This could be raised blood pressure or maybe your blood fats are going up.

That’s all a picture that you’re moving towards type 2 diabetes. So rather than worrying about the symptoms of type 2 diabetes, what you’ve got to do is get ahead of the curve and work in partnership with your general practitioner to actually see whether or not you’re at risk, and you’re heading that way.

But if you are getting symptoms of type 2 diabetes, like infections, trouble with the arteries in your leg, picking up kidney damage, thirst, peeing a lot. Then you know, that’s a pretty late stage in terms of finding out that you’ve got diabetes. You want to get in ahead when you’re feeling well.

Dr Norman Swan, Physician and Journalist