There are several ways to diagnose this dysfunction at home. Its diagnostics depends on the type of this disease you suffer from.
Type 1 diabetes
Type 1 develops in young people under 30 years of age. The main problem lies in the pancreas condition. It either produces too little sugar-lowering hormone – insulin or stops producing it at all.
The most frequent reasons for this are unfavorable heredity (however, a person can get sick, even if no one suffers from type 1 diabetes in the family) and an autoimmune conflict (this is when the body begins to produce antibodies against its own pancreatic insulin-producing cells). At the same time, one of the characteristic symptoms of this type of disease is that a person begins to lose weight fast. With type 1 diabetes, insulin injections are indispensable. An alternative to injections is insulin pumps: devices through which the body constantly receives hormone.
Type 2 diabetes
In common cases, it develops after 40 years (although now this diagnosis is made even in 30–35 years, and recently it has been detected even in children). Insulin in the body of such people is produced enough, only tissues lose sensitivity to this important hormone. The main factor triggers are overweight, low physical activity, diabetes in relatives, high blood pressure. The risk group also includes women whose birth weight was higher than 4 kg. In addition, from time to time, measure the waist: its circumference is more than 80 cm in women and 94 cm in men indicates that you are in the risk zone.
There is an opinion that if you eat a lot of sweets, you can acquire diabetes. But with a normal carbohydrate metabolism chocolate or candy will not cause this disease. However, if you are fond of high-calorie food (especially fats and simple carbohydrates) and at the same time move a little, the risk of getting diabetes increases. The problem is that type 2 diabetes often occurs in a latent form, so many people do not even suspect that they are sick. And when a disease is detected, people often already have serious complications.
How to define diabetes at home?
The most informative test that will help determine diabetes mellitus is an analysis of glycated hemoglobin (HbA1C). It allows the doctor to estimate the average level of sugar in the blood over the past 3 months. The norm is up to 6.0%. At home, you can measure your sugar level with a glucometer. It is better to carry out the procedure in the morning on an empty stomach and during the day 2 hours after eating. By the way, to normalize blood sugar levels in type 2 diabetes, it is sometimes enough to lose weight.
Express test you have diabetes
- Feeling of thirst;
- Frequent urge to urinate;
- Sight impairs when the contours of objects blur as if looking through the fog;
- Chills, numbness and tingling in the palms and soles;
- Itching, pustular skin lesions;
- It requires too much time to heal cuts and scratches;
- In recent months, a few pounds are lost not putting any efforts;
- No matter how much you eat, you can’t eat enough; you are constantly experiencing severe hunger.