8 Symptoms You should Never Ignore When You Have Diabetes

Number one is disorientation. So, disorientation means like you're basically you don't feel like yourself. If you're like something is wrong, maybe dizziness. So, if your mother is dizzy, maybe she's having a little blood sugar. So, check the blood sugar right now. If somebody doesn't make any sense, if somebody is cursing you or they're making things up etc. Or they just look like they're not there. Probably they're diabetic. Well, that's a problem. That may be, we call this "disorientation", and if that's the case, you need to check the blood sugar, because low blood sugars can present like that it doesn't always have to present with shaking, sweating, the classical symptoms we talked about. So, disorientation as one of the common things especially in the elderly.

Number two is chest pain. Now why does chest pain is a symptom of diabetes? No, it's not a symptom of diabetes, although sometimes Metformin can cause chest pain or some medications can cause chest pain, but when you have chest pain, you have to be extremely careful. Don't assume it's reflux. Especially if you have high risk factors. What's the highest risk factor for? Cardiovascular disease or heart attacks? You guess it right, diabetes. So, when are diabetes, especially if you're a male, above 40 and you're female above 50 with diabetes. And especially if you have risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, you are basically a ticking bomb, timeclock. So, basically you need to pay attention to every chest pain you have, especially if the chest pain is in the middle, it's a pressure-like, preventing your breath right, especially if you're moving and the chest pain is worsening. These are absolute no-nos you have to pay attention to. Now, numbness and tingling on your feet.

This is number three. Don't you say "it's just a little thing, a little numbness". I don't want to scare you, but diabetic neuropathy is not something to ignore. So, if you have numbness or tingling, make sure you take care of that. Now, how do you take care of that? You have to make sure you watch; you monitor your feet yourself. It's better to look at the bottom of your feet, if not every day, at least twice a week, three times a week. If you cannot get to the bottom of your feet yourself, have somebody look at it for you. But it's actually important to monitor the numbness or tingling is the first sign of not feeling the skin right. And when there is a problem, normally we feel pretty much everything on our skin, and if you are not feeling it, the bacteria will get in there, you'll not even have an idea by the time it's to your bone. And that may be detrimental. So, if there's a little redness, little blister, you have to take care of that, that moment. Now, we're coming out with a diabetic neuropathy supplement which will have Benzoctamine which you are familiar with, the Alpha Lipoic Acid and some other B12 and some other B vitamins that helps the diabetic neuropathy tremendously.

The next one is blurry vision. Now, blurry vision can happen when your blood sugar fluctuates too much or if your blood sugar comes down from 300-400 to 100 very quickly within a week or two, you may have blurry vision. Sometimes it's actually a good sign that your numbers are coming down but sometimes it can be a sign of diabetic retinopathies there, and you have to make sure that diabetic retinopathies are taken care of, which is diabetic eye disease. If not, they can cause blindness, by causing retinal detachment, by causing all sorts of bleeding in the vitreous hemorrhage, etc. So, extremely important to see your doctor, especially when you have blurry vision, it is not something to ignore, because your eyes are precious. You do not want to give up on your eyes, just because you want to ignore a little blurry vision here and there.

Number five is urinary problems. If you are urinating too often, or you are not urinating at all or you're wetting yourself, these are problems that are commonly seen as part of diabetic neuropathy. We had a diabetic neuropathy video, you may have watched it, if you have done so already, we talked about all sorts of diabetic neuropathy symptoms. So, it's there, but the bladder problems, one is overactive bladder which makes you urinate too often and you may not even get to the restroom before you let it go. And the other one is overflowing incontinence, where your bladder doesn't even work, at all. In this case, it's just called overflow so you're going to be like, basically losing urine without even knowing. So, these are signs of diabetic neuropathy. These are also not to ignore because it can lead to urinary tract infections, and sepsis and so forth. It can get really complicated, so make sure you take care of that, early on by controlling your blood sugar and seeing a urologist.

Now, number six is fruity odor or smell in your breath. Now, more important for Type 1 diabetics, but it happens to Type 2 diabetics as well, especially if you're on SGLT2 inhibitor, which are Jardiance, Farxiga, Invokana, Steglatro. These are the medications that actually increase the risk of diabetic ketoacidosis. But also, if you are insulin-deficient, you may increase your chances of diabetic ketoacidosis which can lead to, actually, death. So, if your blood sugars are high, and you are having this foody odor you have abdominal pain, you know, you have breathing problems, you're breathing heavily, etc. Do not wait, you need to go to emergency room. Now, what's interesting with this also if you're on Jardiance or Farxiga, Invokana, etc. You may actually have okay blood sugars and you may still have DKA. So, if you have, again, abdominal pain, shortness of breath, fruity odor in your breath, these are the things you have to pay attention to and not wait before you see your doctor or go to the emergency room immediately.

Number seven would be the abdominal pain. Now, abdominal pain can be pancreatitis. And remember, pancreatitis is common in diabetics regardless of the medication you take, or you may or may not take medication. So, pancreatitis is inflammation in the pancreas. What are the symptoms of pancreatitis? Severe abdominal pain, right in the middle, it's right under your sternum, right above your stomach, in middle, it feels like somebody is stabbing you and it goes all the way back to your back, and it also associates with nausea and vomiting, most of the time. Some medications slightly increase the risk of pancreatitis such as Rybelsus, Ozempic, Trulicity and Bydureon, and so forth. These are, GLP-1 agonists. You have to be careful about the signs of pancreatitis and again you don't have to be on medication, if you have diabetes, you may have pancreatitis any time. So, these are the symptoms because pancreatitis can develop into a severe, necrotizing pancreatitis, which make you end up in the intensive care unit and if you do so 20-30% occasions ending up in the intensive care unit end up dying for pancreatitis. So, that's another sign that you don't want to ignore.

And the last one, the eighth symptom or sign that you should not ignore, and that's the bonus one, is the leg pain. Now, who did not have leg pain in their life? Everybody gets a leg pain at most of the time. It is ignored. People say it's my knee, or it may be whatever, I walked too long, whatever. But, remember, diabetes is very high risk for peripheral arterial disease. What does that mean? The artery is in your legs can be blocked. And it's extremely common, especially as you get older and if you have diabetes, if you're a smoker, if you have a high blood pressure, if you have high cholesterol. 90% chance that you have some sort arterial disease. Now, what happens when you ignore that? Well, if you develop a sore, at the bottom of your feet, or anywhere in your leg, it is not going to heal.

How can you heal, a lesion if you do not have the nutrients and oxygen, being carried to the dead area. So, that's why people lose their toes, they lose their foot, even sometimes below knee, etc. Because they do have enough vascular supply. So, if you have leg pain, especially when you walk and you start hurting, don't say it's my knee, don't say it's my ankle, whatever. Let the doctors decide. Get your pulse checked. There are certain tests called ankle-brachial index, duplex studies, etc. that doctors can do to identify a blockage in your arteries.