Skip to content

Top Navigation

Health.com Health.com
  • Health Conditions A-Z
  • News
  • Coronavirus
  • Diet & Nutrition
  • Fitness
  • Beauty
  • Mind & Body
  • Lifestyle
  • Weight Loss
  • Newsletter
  • Promo

Profile Menu

Join Now

Account

  • Join Now
  • My Profile
  • Email Preferences
  • Newsletters
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Help
  • Logout

More

  • Give a Gift Subscription this link opens in a new tab
My Account

Account

  • Join Now
  • My Profile
  • Email Preferences
  • Newsletters
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Help
  • Logout

More

  • Give a Gift Subscription this link opens in a new tab
Login
Subscribe
Pin FB

Explore Health.com

Health.com Health.com
  • Explore

    Explore

    • Is Your Doctor Gaslighting You? Here's What to Do

      Is Your Doctor Gaslighting You? Here's What to Do

      How to handle a physician who doubts or dismisses your symptoms. Read More
    • 9 Signs It's More Serious Than the Common Cold

      9 Signs It's More Serious Than the Common Cold

      Doctors explain how to tell if you have a head cold or something more serious that requires medical attention, such as the flu, strep throat, meningitis, or mono. Read More
    • How Your Period Changes During Your 20s, 30s, and 40s

      How Your Period Changes During Your 20s, 30s, and 40s

      From easier cramps to a heavier flow, here's a guide on what to expect decade by decade. Read More
  • Health Conditions A-Z

    Health Conditions A-Z

    See All Health Conditions A-Z
    12 Anxiety Symptoms That Might Point to a Disorder

    12 Anxiety Symptoms That Might Point to a Disorder

    The symptoms of anxiety can be hard to detect. Here are the ones you need to pay attention to, and how to know if you may have an anxiety disorder.
    • Allergies
    • Anxiety
    • Birth Control
    • Breast Cancer
    • Coronavirus
    • Chronic Pain
    • Cold, Flu, and Sinus
    • Depression
    • Digestive Health
    • Diabetes (Type 2)
    • Eczema
    • Eye Health
    • Fibromyalgia
    • Heart Disease
    • Headaches and Migraines
    • Oral Health
    • Pregnancy
    • Psoriasis
    • Sexual Health
    • Skin Conditions
    • Sleep
    • Thyroid
  • News

    News

    See All News
    Shannen Doherty Reveals Stage 4 Breast Cancer Diagnosis—Here's What It Means

    Shannen Doherty Reveals Stage 4 Breast Cancer Diagnosis—Here's What It Means

    "I'm petrified," the actress said when she shared the news that her breast cancer came back. Here's why a stage 4 breast cancer diagnosis can be so frightening.
    • Celebrities
  • Coronavirus
  • Diet & Nutrition

    Diet & Nutrition

    The Best (and Worst) Diets of 2020, According to Experts

    The Best (and Worst) Diets of 2020, According to Experts

    FYI: The keto diet isĀ not number one.
    • Food
    • Nutrition
    • Vitamins and Supplements
    • Groceries
    • Restaurants
    • Diets
    • Keto Diet
    • Mediterranean Diet
    • Whole30
    • Recipes
  • Fitness

    Fitness

    See All Fitness
    10 Moves for a Cardio Workout at Home—No Equipment Required

    10 Moves for a Cardio Workout at Home—No Equipment Required

    Stay in your living room and still spike your heart rate.
    • Cardio Workouts
    • Strength Training
    • Yoga
    • Ab Workouts
    • Arm Workouts
    • Leg Workouts
    • Butt Workouts
    • Fitness Gear
  • Beauty

    Beauty

    See All Beauty
    These 13 Women Prove Every Body Is a Bikini Body

    These 13 Women Prove Every Body Is a Bikini Body

    We're loving their inspirational, body-positive messages.
    • Skincare
    • Makeup
    • Hair
    • Nails
  • Mind & Body

    Mind & Body

    See All Mind & Body
    Why Do People Lie? We Asked an Expert

    Why Do People Lie? We Asked an Expert

    Here's the truth about lying.
    • Body Positivity
    • Self-Care
    • Misdiagnosed
    • Invisible Illness
    • LGBTQ+ Health
    • Right to Care: Health Diversity and Inclusion
    • Resolution Reboot
    • Wellness Warriors
  • Lifestyle

    Lifestyle

    20 Things You Should Throw Away for Better Health

    20 Things You Should Throw Away for Better Health

    Clean out expired products and clutter to make way for a healthier you.
    • Healthy Home
    • Pets
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Style
    • Holidays
    • Sex
    • Gifts
    • Money
    • Tech
    • Medicare
    • Best Life Now
    • Health Reviews
  • Weight Loss
  • Newsletter
  • Promo

Profile Menu

Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
Join Now

Account

  • Join Now
  • My Profile
  • Email Preferences
  • Newsletters
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Help
  • Logout

More

  • Give a Gift Subscription this link opens in a new tab
My Account

Account

  • Join Now
  • My Profile
  • Email Preferences
  • Newsletters
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Help
  • Logout

More

  • Give a Gift Subscription this link opens in a new tab
Login
Sweepstakes

Follow Us

LIVE
  1. HomeChevron Right
  2. Type 2 DiabetesChevron Right
  3. Could You Have Type 2? 10 Diabetes Symptoms

Could You Have Type 2? 10 Diabetes Symptoms

By Amanda Gardner
Updated January 26, 2016
Skip gallery slides
Save Pin
blood-test-diabetes-symptoms
Credit: Corbis
Diabetes is often called the silent killer because of its easy-to-miss symptoms.
Start Slideshow

1 of 11

Save Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Diabetes symptoms

Type 2 diabetes is a serious condition, but the good news is that lifestyle changes can help prevent or delay a diagnosis. Watch this video to see five changes that you can make to help avoid type 2 diabetes.

1 of 11

Advertisement
Advertisement

2 of 11

Save Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Increased urination, excessive thirst

diabetes-symptoms-thirst-diabetes-type
Credit: Corbis

If you need to urinate frequently—particularly if you often have to get up at night to use the bathroom—it could be a symptom of diabetes.

The kidneys kick into high gear to get rid of all that extra glucose in the blood, hence the urge to relieve yourself, sometimes several times during the night.

The excessive thirst means your body is trying to replenish those lost fluids.

These two symptoms go hand in hand and are some of "your body's ways of trying to manage high blood sugar," explains Dr. Collazo-Clavell.

2 of 11

3 of 11

Save Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Weight loss

diabetes-symptoms-weight-loss-diabetes
Credit: Corbis

Overly high blood sugar levels can also cause rapid weight loss, say 10 to 20 pounds over two or three months—but this is not a healthy weight loss.

Because the insulin hormone isn't getting glucose into the cells, where it can be used as energy, the body thinks it's starving and starts breaking down protein from the muscles as an alternate source of fuel.

The kidneys are also working overtime to eliminate the excess sugar, and this leads to a loss of calories (and can harm the kidneys). "These are processes that require a lot of energy," Dr. Collazo-Clavell notes. "You create a calorie deficit."

3 of 11

Advertisement

4 of 11

Save Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Hunger

diabetes-symptoms-hunger-diabetes-2
Credit: Corbis

Excessive pangs of hunger, another sign of diabetes, can come from sharp peaks and lows in blood sugar levels.

When blood sugar levels plummet, the body thinks it hasn't been fed and craves more of the glucose that cells need to function.

4 of 11

5 of 11

Save Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Skin problems

diabetes-symptoms-skin-itch-diabetes
Credit: Corbis

Itchy skin, perhaps the result of dry skin or poor circulation, can often be a warning sign of diabetes, as are other skin conditions, such as acanthosis nigricans.

"This is a darkening of the skin around the neck or armpit area," Dr. Collazo-Clavell says. "People who have this already have an insulin resistance process occurring even though their blood sugar might not be high. When I see this, I want to check their blood sugar."

5 of 11

6 of 11

Save Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Slow healing

bruise-2-diabetes

Infections, cuts, and bruises that don't heal quickly are another classic sign of diabetes.

This usually happens because the blood vessels are being damaged by the excessive amounts of glucose traveling the veins and arteries.

This makes it hard for blood—needed to facilitate healing—to reach different areas of the body.

6 of 11

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

7 of 11

Save Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Yeast infections

diabetes-symptoms-yeast-infection
Credit: Corbis

"Diabetes is considered an immunosuppressed state," Dr. Collazo-Clavell explains. That means heightened susceptibility to a variety of infections, although the most common are yeast (candida) and other fungal infections, she says. Fungi and bacteria both thrive in sugar-rich environments.

Women, in particular, need to watch out for vaginal candida infections.

7 of 11

8 of 11

Save Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Fatigue and irritability

diabetes-symptoms-irritability-diabetes-2
Credit: Corbis

"When people have high blood sugar levels, depending on how long it's been, they can get used to chronically not feeling well," says Dr. Collazo-Clavell. "Sometimes that's what brings them into the office."

Getting up to go to the bathroom several times during the night will make anyone tired, as will the extra effort your body is expending to compensate for its glucose deficiency.

And being tired will make you irritable. "We see people whose blood sugar has been really high, and when we bring the blood sugar down, it's not uncommon that I hear, ‘I didn't realize how bad I felt,'" she says.

8 of 11

9 of 11

Save Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Blurry vision

blurry-vision-diabetes-symptoms
Credit: Corbis

Having distorted vision and seeing floaters or occasional flashes of light are a direct result of high blood sugar levels.

"Blurry vision is a refraction problem. When the glucose in the blood is high, it changes the shape of the lens and the eye," Dr. Collazo-Clavell explains.

The good news is that this symptom is reversible once blood sugar levels are returned to normal or near normal. But let your blood sugar go unchecked for long periods and the glucose will cause permanent damage, possibly even blindness. And that's not reversible.

9 of 11

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

10 of 11

Save Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Tingling or numbness

tingle-diabetes-symptoms
Credit: Corbis

Tingling and numbness in the hands and feet, along with burning pain or swelling, are signs that nerves are being damaged by diabetes.

"If (the symptoms are) recent, it's more likely to be reversible," Dr. Collazo-Clavell says.

Still, as with vision, if blood sugar levels are allowed to run rampant for too long, neuropathy (nerve damage) will be permanent. "That's why we try to control blood sugar as quickly and as well as possible," she says.

10 of 11

11 of 11

Save Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Blood tests

blood-test-diabetes-symptoms
Credit: Corbis
  • Several tests are used to check for diabetes, but a single test result is never enough on its own to diagnose diabetes (the test has to be repeated).
  • One is the fasting plasma glucose test, which checks your blood sugar after a night (or eight hours) of not eating.
  • Blood glucose above 126 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) on two occasions means you have diabetes.
  • The normal cutoff is 99 mg/dL while a blood sugar level of 100 to 125 mg/dL is considered prediabetes, a serious condition on its own.

11 of 11

Replay gallery

Share the Gallery

Pinterest Facebook

Up Next

By Amanda Gardner

    Share the Gallery

    Pinterest Facebook
    Trending Videos
    Advertisement
    Skip slide summaries

    Everything in This Slideshow

    Advertisement

    View All

    1 of 11 Diabetes symptoms
    2 of 11 Increased urination, excessive thirst
    3 of 11 Weight loss
    4 of 11 Hunger
    5 of 11 Skin problems
    6 of 11 Slow healing
    7 of 11 Yeast infections
    8 of 11 Fatigue and irritability
    9 of 11 Blurry vision
    10 of 11 Tingling or numbness
    11 of 11 Blood tests

    Share options

    Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

    Login

    Health.com

    Magazines & More

    Learn More

    • About Us
    • Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
    • Contact us
    • Advertise this link opens in a new tab
    • Content Licensing this link opens in a new tab
    • Sitemap

    Connect

    Follow Us
    Subscribe to Our Newsletter
    Other Meredith Sites

    Other Meredith Sites

    • 4 Your Health this link opens in a new tab
    • Allrecipes this link opens in a new tab
    • All People Quilt this link opens in a new tab
    • Better Homes & Gardens this link opens in a new tab
    • Bizrate Insights this link opens in a new tab
    • Bizrate Surveys this link opens in a new tab
    • Cooking Light this link opens in a new tab
    • Daily Paws this link opens in a new tab
    • EatingWell this link opens in a new tab
    • Eat This, Not That this link opens in a new tab
    • Entertainment Weekly this link opens in a new tab
    • Food & Wine this link opens in a new tab
    • Hello Giggles this link opens in a new tab
    • Instyle this link opens in a new tab
    • Martha Stewart this link opens in a new tab
    • Midwest Living this link opens in a new tab
    • More this link opens in a new tab
    • MyRecipes this link opens in a new tab
    • MyWedding this link opens in a new tab
    • My Food and Family this link opens in a new tab
    • MyLife this link opens in a new tab
    • Parenting this link opens in a new tab
    • Parents this link opens in a new tab
    • People this link opens in a new tab
    • People en EspaƱol this link opens in a new tab
    • Rachael Ray Magazine this link opens in a new tab
    • Real Simple this link opens in a new tab
    • Ser Padres this link opens in a new tab
    • Shape this link opens in a new tab
    • Siempre Mujer this link opens in a new tab
    • Southern Living this link opens in a new tab
    • SwearBy this link opens in a new tab
    • Travel & Leisure this link opens in a new tab
    MeredithHealth.com is part of the Meredith Health Group. © Copyright 2021 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved. The material in this site is intended to be of general informational use and is not intended to constitute medical advice, probable diagnosis, or recommended treatments. All products and services featured are selected by our editors. Health.com may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice. Privacy Policythis link opens in a new tab Terms of Servicethis link opens in a new tab Ad Choicesthis link opens in a new tab California Do Not Sellthis link opens a modal window Web Accessibilitythis link opens in a new tab
    © Copyright . All rights reserved. Printed from https://www.health.com

    View image

    Could You Have Type 2? 10 Diabetes Symptoms
    this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines.