Low energy, particularly after meals. Your body uses glucose as energy. When your glucose is stuck in your blood, it’s not delivered to your cells like it should be, which can cause you to feel run down and tired.
Frequent urination. When there’s ample glucose in your bloodstream, your kidneys work to remove it through your urine.
Thirst and dehydration. As mentioned above, your kidneys remove sugar from your blood through your urine. As your kidneys filter out the glucose, they’re also filtering out water from your blood to cause you to pee. Your thirst is your body asking you to replenish that water. Your body could replenish the water in your blood by drawing from other sources of water in your body, like tears and saliva, which can lead to dry eyes and dry mouth.
Unexplained weight loss. When your cells don’t have the proper access to glucose that they need for energy, your body might start burning fat and tapping into your muscles for energy, which can cause you to lose weight.
Greater hunger and sugar cravings. When your cells don’t have the energy they need to operate they signal to your brain that you need more sugars to fuel them. When you have diabetes, your body doesn’t properly process the glucose that you eat and; therefore, your cells crave food and sugars.
Blurred vision. High blood sugar can cause the lens within your eye to swell and temporarily blur your vision. This is also true of low blood glucose.
Tingling in hands or feet. When you have diabetes, the hemoglobin in your blood thickens it. The resulting poor circulation makes it difficult for your blood to flow through your bodies and to your extremities and can cause your hands and feet to tingle.
Cuts and sores that take a long time to heal. If these occur in combination with neuropathy, infections can develop with extreme consequences, like amputation of the limbs where the cuts and sores are found.
Frequent infections. High blood sugars increase your chances of infections and the pace at which they spread. For example, people with diabetes frequently get yeast infections. Yeast grows more frequently when there are sugars present in your body. When A1C is above 7 percent, it’s more likely to develop yeast infections, particularly in areas of your body that accumulate sugar, where you sweat, urinate or dispel mucus from. Another example is urinary tract infections. In an effort to get rid of the glucose in your body, you might pee out some of the sugars, which can stimulate bacteria growth in the urinary tract.
Dry and itchy skin. Poor blood flow is a common cause of itchy skin. When your blood glucose levels are high for an extended period of time, your blood vessels can become damaged and forme plaque. The plaque makes it hard for blood vessels to deliver blood to nearby cells. Your blood is also considerably thicker because of the hemoglobin attached to it. Yeast infections are another cause of itchy skin.
