Typical symptoms of diabetes that should arouse anxiety and prompt blood glucose measurement are:
- an increased desire whose causes we can not explain
- increased urination, eg 2-3 times more than the daily norm 1-1.5 l - increased appetite and eating large portions of food, without gaining weight
How to recognize diabetes yourself?
Full-blown diabetes is signaled by high blood glucose levels or the presence of glucose in the urine. Let us add that the level of glucose in the blood is called glycemia. Hence, we are talking about normal and abnormal glycemia. The unit of blood glucose is 1 milligram of glucose in 100 milliliters of blood, i.e. in one deciliter (abbreviated as 1 mg / dl) or according to, current trend - 1 millimol of glucose per 1 liter of blood (abbreviated as 1.0 mmol / l)
Diabetes is now recognized by the most popular glucometer:
- when the fasting glucose level in double measurement exceeds 126 mg / dl (7.0 mmol / l)
- when the plasma concentration in an accidental measurement is greater (or equal to) 200 mg / 100 ml (11.1 mmol / l) and there are typical symptoms of diabetes mellitus.
Diagnosis of diabetes with the use of a glucose meter requires confirmation. Usually, the doctor orders to perform the so-called glucose diagnosis to confirm the diagnosis. oral glucose load test.
Scoreoral glucose load test after 2 hours it can be triple:
• over 200 mg / dl - diagnosis of diabetes mellitus
• 140-200 mg / dl - incorrect glucose tolerance
• <140 mg / dl - normal value - confirmation of diagnosis of abnormal fasting glycaemia
Let us add that the above methods can detect two types of diabetes:
1. Type 1 diabetes - this disease usually starts rapidly and requires insulin injections. Type 1 diabetes affects mainly young people and in their prime.
2. Type 2 diabetes, which most often attacks older people. This second form of the disease is insidious and often overlooked by patients for years. Therefore, it is no less dangerous than the first one, although it does not usually require insulin injections.
Let's also remind that
Already in the 1960s, the criteria for diagnosing diabetes oscillated around 130 mg / dl, and then erroneously increased. It should also be noted that glycemic lower than 126 mg / dl do not provide a guarantee of combating dangerous complications of this disease - eg type of macroangiopathy.
Incorrect fasting glucose - an important health risk indicator for type 2 diabetes
Therefore, the concept of abnormal fasting glycemia was introduced. It defines this blood glucose level between 110 and 125 mg / dl. Long-term prevalence of these levels, which is typical at the onset of type 2 diabetes - is a recognized risk factor for the development of dangerous cardiovascular complications and requires constant glycemic control and prophylaxis (diet, physical exercise).
