IMPORTANT: This is just for information and not medical advice. Always talk to your doctor about your health.
Darker Area of Skin
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Dark, soft skin discolorations in areas like the neck, armpits, or groin could point to prediabetes. Called acanthosis nigricans, these patches often appear before diabetes or prediabetes is diagnosed.
While healthy people can sometimes get them, they usually suggest the body is not responding well to insulin. See a doctor for a checkup if you observe this skin change.
Unexplained Weight Loss
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Although your hunger could grow, effortless weight reduction is possible. This occurs because cells are struggling to properly use sugar from ingested food. Consequently, the body starts using up fat reserves and muscles for fuel instead, causing unintentional weight loss.
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Blurred Vision
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Sustained high blood glucose can cause temporary changes in the form of the eye’s lens, resulting in eyesight problems. As blood glucose rises and falls, the lens can enlarge, hindering its capacity to focus and leading to unclear or warped vision.
These eyesight alterations frequently occur in conjunction with changes in blood glucose. Ignoring blurred vision as a preliminary sign of prediabetes is unwise, as it indicates the body’s difficulty in effectively managing blood glucose. Without proper management, this cautionary indication could contribute to the onset of type 2 diabetes and elevate the potential for more serious, permanent eyesight complications.
Outbreak of Small Bumps
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High blood sugar, related to diabetes, can cause more triglycerides (a kind of fat in the blood). This, in turn, can cause eruptive xanthomatosis, a skin problem. Sometimes, people who don’t know they have diabetes will suddenly get small skin bumps.
These bumps often look yellowish on people with light skin. On people with dark skin, they may look grayish with a hint of yellow. They are often found on the buttocks, thighs, elbows, and knees, but can appear anywhere. All of these bumps are usually tender and itchy, no matter where they are.
Unusual Fatigue
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Feeling tired can signal problems with blood sugar. If your body struggles to use insulin well, it messes up how it turns sugar into energy, causing ongoing tiredness or weariness, even with enough sleep.
Besides physical tiredness, you might also feel mentally worn out, making it hard to concentrate and do normal activities.
Increased Thirst and More Frequent Bathroom Trips
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One of the first typical signs of prediabetes is feeling more thirsty and needing to pee more often. As blood sugar gets higher, the kidneys have to work harder to clean and keep the extra sugar. If there’s too much sugar for them to handle, the body gets rid of the extra sugar through urine. This pulls water out of the body’s tissues, causing dehydration and making you feel constantly thirsty.
Because you’re drinking more to deal with the thirst, you end up peeing more frequently. You might not notice these things at first, but they usually get worse as prediabetes gets closer to becoming type 2 diabetes. Spotting these signals early can help you do things to keep your blood sugar under control.
Skin Tags
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Acrochordons, also called skin tags, are typical, non-cancerous skin growths that can develop in different locations on the body. These growths can be either closely connected to the skin or suspended by a narrow stem.
Skin tags most often appear on the eyelids, neck, armpits, and groin, though they can occur elsewhere. While harmless, a high quantity of these growths might suggest an existing health problem like type 2 diabetes. Therefore, if you observe a large number of skin tags, seeing a physician to see if you need diabetes testing is a good idea.
Slow Healing Cuts and Wounds
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Sustained high glucose levels in the blood impair the body’s ability to mend itself due to harm inflicted on the blood vessels responsible for transporting vital nourishment and oxygen to various tissues, the skin included. This harm results in reduced blood flow, an important factor in injury repair, meaning scrapes, contusions, and other traumas take more time to heal.
Furthermore, elevated blood glucose weakens the body’s defenses against illness, making it more difficult to fight off infections. Consequently, even small injuries face a greater chance of becoming infected, further extending the duration needed for recovery.
Skin irritation.
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Prediabetes can manifest as pins and needles or a lack of sensation in your hands and feet. This happens because high glucose levels can damage tiny nerves, a problem called diabetic neuropathy. This nerve damage can create other sensations, like a burning feeling in your limbs or the feeling of crumpled socks under your toes, in addition to the tingling and numbness.
Early detection and treatment of prediabetes can alleviate these sensations and also decrease the likelihood of developing diabetic neuropathy.
A simple blood test, the same kind used for type 2 diabetes diagnosis, can reveal if you have prediabetes. Talk to your doctor to see if testing is recommended for you.
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