Life can be extremely busy, with demands from work, family, and friends, or even the challenges of daily living, taking their toll. So when you start to feel a little more tired than normal, it’s easy to blame it on life’s pressures, or the hot weather, or ‘just one of those bugs’ which are going around.
But fatigue may not be due to any of those known pressures. It just might be that you are displaying one of the early signs of diabetes.
According to Diabetes UK, one in three people in the UK could be at risk of developing diabetes by 2030. [1]
And whilst pre-diabetes generally doesn’t show any outward symptoms, being aware of the early signs of diabetes and acting on them could make a significant difference to health in later years.
So apart from unusual fatigue, what other signs should you watch out for? The fatigue comes because your body is unable to provide enough glucose to give you the energy you need. Following on from this, the next sign that you may have diabetes is that you are starting to lose weight without trying. That’s also a warning sign for other conditions, including cancer, so it’s a definite signal that a doctor’s visit is required. Other diabetes symptoms include feeling extremely thirsty, going to the toilet more often, blurred vision, and cuts taking longer to heal.
We mentioned above that pre-diabetes susceptibility doesn’t generally show any outward symptoms. But there are some changes in the body which can indicate whether someone is more likely to be pre-diabetic. That’s why we are developing a non-contact handheld device which detects markers in the eyes and can therefore provide an early warning of diabetes susceptibility. This, in turn enables people to take action with a view to reducing their chances of developing diabetes.
In the pre-diabetes stage or indeed in the early stages of diabetes, it can be possible to make certain lifestyle changes which will help to reduce the impact of diabetes. These include eating healthily, losing weight, and becoming active. Taking steps to control blood pressure is also important, as is giving up smoking. Not only will steps such as these help with diabetes management, studies have shown that Type 2 diabetes can be reversed through weight loss. [2] However, remission is more likely in the early years after diabetes has developed; another reason to be aware of, and act on, the potential signs of diabetes.
The sheer scale of the healthcare challenges of Diabetes is the reason why we're developing technology that can be used for the screening and monitoring of the disease that affects millions of people worldwide. To discover our novel, innovative technology click here.