What is high blood sugar?
Have you recently felt like running to the washroom more often than usual? Do you often feel lethargic? If your answer to all these questions is yes, you might be suffering from high sugar levels. High sugar levels, or hyperglycemia, is common in diabetic patients. It is a condition when your body cannot produce the required amount of insulin. Hyperglycemia can also result from insulin resistance in your body. Your blood sugar levels might also rise because of some illness or stress. Consistent high sugar levels can lead to many complications, if left untreated.
5 signs to detect high blood sugar
If you want to know how to control high sugar, you have to know the symptoms first. You will not experience any signs or symptoms of diabetes high sugar levels until the sugar levels are extremely elevated. You might not even realise any problem initially as the symptoms might develop over time. The most common symptoms of high sugar are increased thirst, increased hunger, weight loss, increased urination, headaches, fatigue, and blurred vision. If left untreated, the symptoms become more serious and can lead to serious complications. You might suffer from shortness of breath, yeast infections, and abdominal pain.
Hungrier than usual but losing weight
When your sugar levels are high, your body cannot produce enough insulin for energy. As a result, your muscles and other organs become weak and low on energy. This makes you feel hungrier than usual. You are always craving food but eating does not satisfy your hunger. This condition is called polyphagia. At the same time, you keep on losing weight because when your body cannot extract energy from within, it will burn your muscles and fat for the required energy. The risk involved is you keep on eating in excess to satisfy your hunger which can further increase your sugar levels.
Blurry vision and frequent headaches
High sugar levels or excessive glucose in your bloodstream can damage your blood vessels and nerves. This leads to the swelling of the eye lens and subsequent blurred vision. Headaches are caused by fluctuations in your blood glucose levels. The higher your fluctuations, the more the headaches. If you neglect the symptoms of blurred vision, you may develop diabetic retinopathy in the future. Diabetic retinopathy can cause distorted or total loss of vision if the high blood sugar levels are not controlled.
Getting yeast infections more often than usual
If you do not know how to control high sugar, it can lead to yeast infections, particularly in the vaginal area. Yeast infections can also develop in your mouth, feet, or skin folds. With diabetes, it becomes difficult to treat yeast infections. Yeast infections are caused by a compromised immune system. Therefore, diabetic patients must know the symptoms of a yeast infection to avoid complications. Without timely diagnosis and treatment, yeast infections can spread to the bloodstream and become life-threatening.
Shortness of breath
Uncontrolled diabetes, or hyperglycemia, might affect your lung function. If you experience Kussmaul breathing (rapid breathing), it might be a symptom of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). Ketoacidosis is mostly seen in diabetic patients who do not produce sufficient insulin. If you are conscious of the symptoms of diabetes and go for timely intervention and treatment, you may be able to control the serious side effects of diabetes like shortness of breath or ketoacidosis. Ketoacidosis or shortness of breath in diabetes is a serious medical condition and requires emergency treatment.
Abdominal pain
A serious complication of high sugar levels is abdominal pain. Diabetics often experience digestive disorders like gastroparesis, a condition that causes a delay in the emptying of the stomach. It leads to abdominal pain and other stomach problems. Smoking elevates the risk of abdominal pain in diabetes. If left untreated, gastroparesis can lead to nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and a feeling of fullness even without eating. It can be controlled through lifestyle modifications and controlled diabetes.
Conclusion
High sugar levels can have adverse effects on both your mental and physical health. Elevated levels of diabetes for a prolonged period can damage vital organs like your eyes, kidneys, heart, and even liver. If you neglect the serious signs of high blood sugar, like blurred vision, weight loss, shortness of breath or abdominal pain, they might turn into serious complications. Serious symptoms of diabetes can also prove to be fatal. However, if you control your diabetes successfully, with medicines and lifestyle modifications, the complications become negligible.