4 Ways to Diagnose Diabetes

Symptoms of diabetes can be hard to diagnose because they seem very similar to those of other diseases. It’s best to visit your doctor regularly to help ensure they are keeping an eye on your blood sugar levels. In order to be able to have the fastest and most accurate diagnosis, here are four signs of diabetes that you can also be on the lookout for yourself.

What is Diabetes?

Diabetes is a chronic illness that affects the way your body regulates blood sugar. There are two main types of diabetes type one and type two diabetes.

Insulin is a hormone that your pancreas produces. This hormone enters your blood once your pancreas does its work. In cells, insulin serves as the key that unlocks the cell door, and then glucose enters, which is fuel or energy for organs and tissues.

Type 1 Diabetes

In type one diabetes, the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks and destroys cells in the pancreas that create insulin. Because of this attack, the little insulin that is being created by the body isn’t being released in the bloodstream. Diabetes causes a build-up of glucose in the bloodstream, and this can be damaging if it’s not handled properly. That includes diabetes-related complications like kidney failure and other debilitating diseases.

Type 2 Diabetes 

Type 2 diabetes is caused by problems with insulin production or insulin receptor function. It could be that your body isn’t producing enough insulin or the cells in your body don’t react to it properly. This is the most common form of diabetes, with up to 95% of cases, and it tends to primarily affect middle-aged and older individuals. There are a couple different ways to refer to this particular form of diabetes, namely, Type 2 diabetes and insulin-resistant diabetes. It used to be called sugar on the side.

4 Different Tests that can be done to Diagnose Diabetes

1. Fasting blood glucose level. In order to conduct a simple blood test, your healthcare team will withdraw a sample of your blood for laboratory analysis. If a person’s blood glucose level is 7.0 mmol/L or higher, then they have diabetes.

2. A1C. In this test, a laboratory staff analyzes a blood sample. An A1C level of 6.5% or higher indicates that the individual has diabetes.

3. Oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). The glucose tolerance test is a way to measure your body’s ability to use a type of sugar which is the body’s main source of energy. Normally, the test is done in the morning and the night before you fast. The morning after you arrive, a blood sample will be taken. This is your fasting blood glucose, and we’ll use it to check other glucose levels.

You will drink a liquid with 75 grams of glucose (which is quite sweet) before you have your blood drawn. for the best outcome, it is important to drink the liquid in under two hours. After this time, your healthcare team will again draw your blood and send both blood glucose samples to a laboratory for analysis. Having a blood glucose level of 11.1 mmol/L or higher two hours after a sugary drink means that a person has diabetes.

Women being tested for gestational diabetes have a 50-gram glucose test, rather than the 75-gram test, and their blood glucose is measured one hour later. A blood glucose level of 11.1 mmol/L or higher suggests that the woman has gestational diabetes.

4. Random blood glucose test. If your healthcare team suspects you may be at high risk for diabetes, they may draw your blood, regardless of whether you have been fasting or have eaten recently. When your blood glucose level is confirmed at 11.1 mmol/L or higher, it is possible that the person has diabetes.

It’s hard to predict who will develop type 1 diabetes, but the risk factors for type 2 diabetes are relatively clear: being overweight, being over 40 years of age, having a sedentary lifestyle (not getting much physical activity), and having a close family history (if you or one of your parents has diabetes). To see if you might be at risk for diabetes, talk to your healthcare team about a blood sugar test.

Besides that, if you think you are showing symptoms of diabetes, go see your healthcare provider to figure out what is going on.