Diabetes symptoms in women and men, must read!

SYMPTOMS OF DIABETES: HOW THE EARLY SCREENING?
Diabetes symptoms in women and men.

According to the French Diabetes Association (AFD), almost 700,000 French

Diabetes symptoms in women and men

diabetics are unaware of being affected by this condition. Yet it is essential to detect diabetes before complications occur with this disease.

Professor Patrick Vexiau * clear symptoms suggestive of diabetes and the most at risk people.

Can one have diabetes without knowing it? How is then carried the diagnosis of diabetes?

It is currently estimated that there are between 600,000 and 800,000 people with diabetes, women and men who are unaware of France, most of the 3 million known diabetics. Specifically, the data of the UKPDS (United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study of) showed that the actual onset of diabetes preceded August to October years diagnosis of the disease.

In over 80% of cases, diabetes is diagnosed during a blood test required as a routine. In coronary care units, 20% of patients are actually suffering from diabetes and half of them are diagnosed during this hospitalization, and thus for acute coronary complications.

Thus, for many people, the diagnosis of diabetes is made ​​on the occasion of a complication of the disease, given that it occurs a decade or more after the onset of diabetes, thus confirming the diagnosis is often overlooked during an entire decade.

How to spot the symptoms of diabetes in women and men?

Symptoms suggestive of diabetes are polyuria the existence of a polydypsique syndrome, that is, the appearance of a large thirst with the fact that the patient urinates frequently, especially at night, which wakes up and requires to get up. However, these symptoms only appear when sugar appears in the urine, which occurs when blood glucose exceeds 1,80g / l. In practice, this means that the blood sugar is well above 2 g / l when these symptoms are visible. Often then combines weight loss. Thus, when these symptoms occur, the diagnosis is already very late.

We must therefore insist that it is not directly on the symptoms associated with diabetes need to evoke the disease, but before the events that predispose to diabetes:

It is above all the existence of family history. If a parent has become known diabetes at the age of 50 years and it was not known for 10 years, the disease has thus emerged at the age of 40 years. It was then 35 years from a periodic systematic research should be performed in children.

The existence of other abnormalities such as dyslipidemia, hypertension or unexplained inflammatory syndrome, should be investigated, metabolic syndrome, which is frequently associated with diabetes.

Finally, lack of physical activity and overweight are major factors revealing a genetic predisposition to diabetes. Less active and / or overweight patients should regularly check the existence of diabetes, particularly when obesity is android (abdominal obesity).

It is known that diabetic patients often had large babies at birth. Thus, any woman who has had a child weighing more than 4.5 kg weight must periodically have diabetes. It was only at the cost of screening and systematic research that can happen to diagnose early and therefore to treat diabetes, to avoid complications.

In the absence of screening and treatment of diabetes, what are the risks?

In the absence of screening and treatment of diabetes, the main risk is that the disease is revealed by a complication.

This is most often a complication of vascular order (coronary heart disease, heart attack, stroke, peripheral arterial disease).

It can be also achieved the small vessels of the retina with a decrease in visual acuity, renal involvement with the appearance of albumin in the urine, and of overt renal disease (diabetes becomes the first cause of ESRD).

This may be yet nerve damage (neuropathy), an accident such as facial paralysis and impairment of ocular motility.

In the case of neuropathy with involvement of the peripheral nerves, appear signs of polyneuropathy and a burning sensation in the feet or like walking in cotton.

Finally, acute complications are favored by an unbalanced and therefore undiagnosed diabetes. This may be for example an infection from a wound that heals easily.

Diabetes is an insidious disease that causes low noise reached a particular vessel responsible for complications. The goal is early diagnosis to avoid the risk of complications and even diagnosed at the stage of pre-diabetes to deal with the lifestyle changes even before diabetes occurs.

* Professor Patrick Vexiau is the Secretary General of the French Diabetes Association (AFD) and department head diabetology and endocrinology at Saint-Louis Hospital in Paris (AP-HP).