Diabetes is a dangerous disease for the heart, eyesight, kidneys, feet… However, many people have diabetes without knowing it. Intense fatigue can alert you, as can a bad blood test.
Are diabetes it’s about one pancreas that does not produce enough insulin to regulate blood sugar levels (sugar level) in the blood, or a body that is unable to effectively use the insulin it produces. In France4 million people are affected by this chronic disease of which “93% have a Type 2 diabetes and 6% have type 1 diabetes. tell us Dr. Jean-François Thébaut, vice-president of the French Federation of Diabetics. Many others are unaware of it while diabetes causes complications on the nerves, heart, arteries, eyes, hands, feet, kidneys or even the teeth. On the occasion of the World Diabetes Day November 14Dr. Jean-François Thébaut describes the signs and symptoms which can alert you to the existence of diabetes.
The blood test will allow itassess fasting blood glucose levels and observe it over the long term. The criteria for diabetes are:
- < 1.10 g, no sign of diabetes;
- between 1.10 g and 1.25 g, prediabetes state
- > 1.26 g, diabetic condition if the observed results are observed twice as part of a blood test two months apart
Diabetes can also be defined by blood sugar level > 2 g, at any time of the day, for example after a meal. “At the pregnant woman, this limit is lower: 0.92 g/l on an empty stomach and more than 1.4 g/l after adding sugar“.
The symptoms that should alert you and may indicate diabetes are:
- a thirsty important;
- a very frequent urge to urinate and in younger people, enuresis (bed-wetting) may start again;
- a weight lossa weight loss suddenly ;
- and often A severe fatigue.
“In type 1 diabetes, the intensity of symptoms is often sudden. Type 1 diabetes is an immunological diabetes that affects young people up to 35 years oldsometimes even in infants, and which often begins suddenly and can sometimes cause a coma. While the Type 2 diabetes can start in a very insidious way over many years asymptomatic ande that has come to light in the context of a complication (stroke, heart attack, eye accident, foot wound, etc.)“, he adds.
“Over there capillary blood glucose is not recognized as a tool for diabetes screening, because for example we cannot know if the person is really fasting and the observed values differ from the blood test” he notes.
“The urine of a diabetic patient is sweet”
Can diabetes be seen physically?
Diabetes cannot be physically observed: it is a… insidious disease. “In general, 70% of type 2 diabetics are overweight or proven obese“, illustrates Jean-François Thébaut.
The urine of a diabetic patient is specific because in the acute phase of the disease urine is sweet. In the history of medicine, the first doctors interested in diabetes noticed this flies and bees were attracted to the urine of some patients. “By tasting the urine they discovered that it was sweet“, he happily reveals to us.
The scores revealed by FINRISC can identify people at risk of becoming prediabetic. The questions asked by this test make it possible to determine the signals that can warn, namely: high weight and BMI, high blood pressure, smoking…
“And if the person has done that in addition to these warning signs people with diabetes in his familyshe is at risk of becoming prediabetic. In this case, it is necessary to conduct a blood test and assess blood sugar levels, cholesterol and liver function“, he concludes.
With thanks to Jean-François Thébaut, Vice President of the French Federation of Diabetics.