Do you understand the signs and symptoms of diabetes mellitus? Many people think that this is a disease on its own, but it is a combination of three types of diabetes that afflict people. Diabetes has increasingly become a cause for concern especially because it is an autoimmune disease, where the body mistakenly attacks and destroys or renders ineffective the insulin producing cells in the pancreas. This leads to having too much glucose in the blood, because it is not transitioned to the cells for the production of energy that our bodies need every day. Many people who suffer diabetes mellitus do not know that they have it because it never manifests itself early enough. Remember that the diagnosis can only be done after the symptoms set in.
By the onset of the symptoms, you can be able to tell what kind of diabetes you are suffering from. However, in type 1 diabetes, also called juvenile diabetes because it affects young people mostly, one has little or no insulin in their body. Victims of this disease must take a dose of insulin every day. This occurs mostly in children and young adults but it is not strictly restricted to them. Anyone can suffer from this, so it is always smart to be on the lookout for the signs and symptoms of diabetes mellitus.
The other type of diabetes under the collective name of diabetes mellitus is gestational diabetes. This one affects mothers after they give birth. Although it can afflict anyone, those at higher risk of catching the disease include the African Americans, Native Americans and Latinos. Note that this is categorized according to the rampancy but that does not mean that all the other people are safe. In fact, if there is a history of this infection in your family, then you too stand a risk.
The third type of diabetes under diabetic mellitus is Type 2 diabetes. This one mostly affects people who are over 40 years of age and one common characteristic that has been noticed in such people is overweight. With obesity becoming a universal concern today, even children are being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Unlike the case of the type 1 diabetes where the body produces very little or no insulin, in the case of the type 2 diabetes, there is enough insulin but it does not function properly and therefore the body has to be provided with working insulin.
Now, one thing that one should know about diabetes mellitus is that it does not matter what you are suffering from, but the result will be that you have more glucose in the blood and going to the kidneys, simply because the agent (insulin) that enables transition of glucose to the cells is not there. There are very many signs and symptoms of diabetic mellitus, but the above three kinds of diabetes share some like frequent urination, weight loss/gain, hunger even after eating, thirst, vision changes, tingling in the feet and hands, numbness and sores and cuts that take long to heal