Type 2 Diabetes: Recently Diagnosed
Symptoms
Before being diagnosed, many people with type 2 diabetes develop symptoms such as increased thirst and urination, weight loss, and blurred vision. However, others do not; you may not have had symptoms if your blood sugar level increased slowly over several years and your body adjusted to the rising level.
While diabetes is diagnosed when your fasting blood glucose is 7 millimoles per litre (mmol/L) or higher, some people do not notice symptoms until their blood sugar rises to 11.1 mmol/L or higher.
If you did have symptoms, they will go away when your blood sugar level returns to a normal or near-normal range.
If your blood sugar level stays high, you may develop symptoms of high blood sugar, such as increased thirst, urination, and hunger, and blurred vision. You may not have symptoms of high blood sugar if your blood sugar level is only slightly elevated. The higher the level rises, the more likely you are to have symptoms. If you have higher-than-normal blood sugar and do not drink enough liquids, you can become dehydrated, which can lead to an emergency situation called a hyperosmolar state.
If your blood sugar is below a normal or near-normal range, you may have symptoms of low blood sugar, ranging from sweating and shakiness to confusion and loss of consciousness. These may occur as a side effect of certain oral medications for type 2 diabetes, such as glyburide (DiaBeta), glicazide (Diamicron), or glimepiride (Amaryl) or insulin.
Symptoms and signs of complications
You may already have one or more complications of diabetes. Be aware of possible complications and their symptoms, such as:
- Burning pain, numbness, or swelling in your feet or hands, which may indicate diabetic neuropathy. If one nerve is affected (focal neuropathy), you may have symptoms in one area of your body, such as your eye or face. Diabetic neuropathy can eventually affect your internal organs (autonomic neuropathy) as well, causing abdominal problems, sexual problems, and other kinds of symptoms. For more information, see the topic Diabetic Neuropathy.
- Blurred or distorted vision; seeing floaters or flashes of light, large floating red or black spots, or large areas that look like floating hair, cotton fibres, or spiderwebs; or pain in your eyes. Although eye disease is not likely to cause symptoms in its early stages, these symptoms may indicate diabetic retinopathy.
- A wound that won't heal or that looks infected, which may indicate damage to the blood vessels that supply that area.
- A heart attack, stroke, or peripheral arterial disease, which may indicate macrovascular disease.
If you have kidney damage (diabetic nephropathy), you may not notice symptoms. Early damage to your kidneys can be detected only with urine tests for protein.
 Go to previous section |  Go to top of page |  Go to next section |
| Author: | Merrill Hayden Carrie Henley | Last Updated: November 27, 2006 |
| Medical Review: | Adam Husney, MD - Family Medicine Caroline S. Rhoads, MD - Internal Medicine Hanan Bassyouni, MD - Endocrinology and Metabolism Matthew I. Kim, MD - Endocrinology & Metabolism | |
 | ||
