Diabetes runs in my family. Almost everyone on my dad’s side of the family has/had it and many of them suffered quite a lot under it. My dad was diagnosed when he was 44 (he’s 75-now and needs insulin shots multiple times a day) and my brother, who is gonna be 40 next year, was diagnosed earlier this year or last year (not sure if he’s insulin dependent or not). I just turned 41 this September and have been riding the “high glucose/pre-diabetic” test results high-wire for the last decade or so. I used to be much more active (pre-COVID) and ate better in the past, but as I get on in my years, I am worried that this is going to become an inevitability even if I were to resume my previous exercise and nutrition regiments.
I think a lot of us can benefit greatly from hindsight and, even if it can’t help you now, what were some warnings/indications you were diabetic before you actually confirmed it? If you’re up for sharing, what was the final event that forced you to seek help and eventually get diagnosed?
Thank you, in advance, for any information you are willing to share!
Edit: Updated the title to specify Type-2 diabetics. Still, T1 that know how they were feeling prior to are more than welcome to comment, as well!
If you are stressed about it, I would recommend possibly getting a glucose monitor for your own mental health. You can check it more frequently and see what your glucose does before and after meals, that can give you some more information to go off of if you are trying to get your doctor to order specific tests. I imagine if you asked him he would order an A1C test though! They are simple and quick, and as the other person said, they give you a good idea of how well your blood sugar is controlled over the course of several months. It’s really the way they diagnose diabetes in the first place generally. Activity and diet control are the number one ways to stay out of diabetes, however. Some people’s genetics are so tilted towards diabetes that they will enter it eventually regardless of how they eat, but that’s a pretty rare case. If you are really able to keep yourself in shape and control your diet for calories and carbohydrates and fiber, your chances are become so slim that I doubt your doctor would worry about it much anymore. I know that’s a difficult thing to do though, so as others have said, frequency of urination is often one, especially at night, neuropathic tingling in your toes, slowly healing wounds, fatigue. These are often among the first symptoms, but in many cases people don’t catch it until they enter what is called DKA or ketoacidosis, this is the major short-term risk of both diabetes, it is a separate production your body switches to when it can’t process carbohydrates and it produces an acid that your blood won’t get rid of fast enough, these people have to go to the hospital and stay usually a couple days qqqto get out of it. If you are already tracking it with your doctor, and checking your blood sugars, then you are ahead of the game! There is no real indicator besides your blood sugar and your a1c, and then physiological symptoms you may notice. Even if you do go into diabetes at this stage in your life, IF you are doing the other things I mentioned, and tracking your blood sugar, it would most likely be a an autoimmune-induced late onset type 1 diabetes. Even if that were the case with modern devices like CGM or sometimes even cgm and insulin pump combos. Your health can remain basically the same even after that kind of diagnosis! At this stage in our science, both types of diabetes are completely manageable if you are willing to be VERY compliant with your regiment. The bad parts of diabetes always come from specifically uncontrolled diabetes. The issue is that the molecule of glucose is large and can cause damage in the bloodstream, so when that level gets out of control, those molecules can clump and affect your tiny blood vessels. That is where the worst things come from, general organ damage including eyes and lack of circulation to the smaller ends of your extremities, usually your toes first. There is ALMOST no actual risk to having diabetes if you control it really well, you can essentially have full-blown type 1 diabetes with no insulin producing cells remaining and if you are tracking it well enough and good enough about your diet and exercise and medicine you can live a completely normal life and it won’t even shorten your lifespan significantly. That’s the hard part for people though. Having really good control because it’s a pain in the butt. Source: I’m an ICU nurse
Thank you so much for your insightful comment! I think I’m going to look into getting some sort of monitor just so I can, as you outlined, get some peace of mind. My doctor also suggested in our last visit that I invest in a blood pressure cuff to check for high blood pressure so finding both medical instruments might be worth purchasing together!
I hear you on the uncontrollable diabetes and difficulties for people. My dad, when he was diagnosed, was a consultant and had to move around to various parts of the country a lot. It wrecked his body and lead to the start of his issues. He went from drinking a 6-12 pack of beer almost daily to quitting cold turkey. He probably wouldn’t have made it to mine and my siblings graduations had it not been for his fortitude. Anymore, diet seems to be a huge part in the equation and unless you’re loaded, it’s really difficult to eat well. I wish our system of food processing was better and we didn’t constantly have to fight the battle against proper nutrition and affording other necessities in our lives.
My hope, from this post, is that I can get a sort of “scared straight” result that’ll snap me out of my current funk leading to the harmful, antithetic actions I’ve found myself repeating. Thank you again for your comment!
I also wanted to suggest to you that you go on a marathon on some site like YouTube about diabetic management and prevention. Knowledge is power when it comes to disease! The better you understand, the disease you face and the more you know about it, the smarter decisions you can make for yourself and your own health! Just make sure you are checking your sources carefully! There are probably more bad sources than there are good sources in the the grand scheme of the internet. A good rule of thumb is to steer away from .coms and steer toward .orgs and in the past .gov
Ain’t that the truth. Was just telling a friend of mine that we sacrificed so much science and technology for a bunch of red-hat racists and that the GOV sites we used to rely on for accurate and adequate info are all but farcical now.
It is definitely a lot of management, but it may be the disease. I see that is most preventable but also causes the most problems for people in the hospital when not controlled well. Our society does suck that way, but if you can do anything to stick to whole foods like fruit and cook your own meals without added sugar or salt, it can go a long way and sometimes save you money, though I do recognize that cheap as hell, fast food is the cheapest way to eat these days. It is also poison and I think you would do well to steer clear of it as often as humanly possible ❤️ most especially soda, even the sugar-free ones aren’t great, especially for diabetics as they can trick your body into releasing insulin and it’s still taxing for that system in a diabetic. You got this I believe in you!
Thank you, friend! I actually stopped drinking soda with the Supersize Me documentary. Haven’t looked back since. Now it’s just water (and beer, with meals) for me! My son is gonna be 6yo this month and since we don’t have soda, he drinks only water and juice (with no added sugar)! I used to be a lot more stringent on my no sugar diet. Anymore, with a kid, I fear I would have a hard time doing that!
Still, thank you for your replies!