What Are The Symptoms Of High Blood Sugar That Might Indicate I Have Diabetes?

— -- Question: What are the symptoms of high blood sugar that might indicate I have diabetes?

Answer: First of all there may not be any symptoms of high blood sugar, so it is worth screening if you have a strong family history, if you have a reason to think that you may have diabetes, because sometimes it's asymptomatic and it's important to know if your blood sugar is high and if you do have diabetes and get it under control early.

But if the blood sugar goes very high then lets say over 200 or so, then it can cause symptoms and the classic symptoms would be increased thirst, increased urination, general fatigue, vaginal infections in women, and even blurred vision can occur from the high blood sugar.

These symptoms, as I say, may not occur, or they may occur in any combination, but what's causing them is that the sugar is thickening the blood, so it's really like taking maple syrup and pouring maple syrup into a glass of water. If you do that after a while, the water gets thicker and thicker, and in the bloodstream, the brain then reads that as the blood's too thick, I need to drink in order to dilute back out the blood, and when I drink and I drink, sometime people with diabetes drink gallons of water in a day, when drink and I drink, I have to put it somewhere, and where I put it is to urinate it out. That's not really solving the problem, it's not really curing the diabetes in any way or treating it, but thirst and urination is the classic symptom of diabetes and indicates that you do need help.

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