EARLY SIGNS OF DIABETES

PREDIABETES

Early signs of diabetes

If you have reached prediabetes, picture this stage as the "warning light" on your car's dashboard – and take it very seriously. Early diabetes mellitus can be broken down into two substages:

-          Mild Hyperglycemia

-          Initial Insulin Resistance

At this point, your blood glucose levels are just above the normal range, but not high enough to be "Diabetes!". 

What's Happening with the Pancreas and Liver at This Stage?

Think of your pancreas as a hard worker, always on the clock to keep your blood sugar levels in check. During Mild Hyperglycemia, it's already starting to feel a bit overworked. The pancreas secretes insulin, which acts like a key to let glucose into your cells for energy.

But when you hit Initial Insulin Resistance, your cells start ignoring insulin's knock on the door.

This makes the pancreas go into overdrive, pumping out more insulin to get the job done. Meanwhile, your liver, which usually stores and releases glucose, starts playing a tricky game, releasing more glucose into the bloodstream and adding to the chaos.

Symptoms to Expect

Early diabetes is a sneaky stage. You might not even know it's there because it often comes with no symptoms at all and that is the most dangerous thing about this stage. However, if it does give you a hint, you might experience:

-Increased thirst, you might or might not realise your increased thirst

-Frequent urination, could happen especially if blood sugar occasionally hits 10,0 mmol/L or around 180mg/dl

-Slight fatigue – most likely during daytime, feeling like you need quick powernap after meals especially.

-Mild weight gain – might or might not happen at this stage

These symptoms are your body’s way of waving a tiny red flag, if you can detect them but as mentioned before be aware that this is sometimes very difficult to detect and development that can easily go undetected even for years sometimes.

In my case, I had none of the typical symptoms of diabetes. Even fatigue was not present in a way that I would have pinpointed it as a problem.

This is why I didn’t pay proper attention even when I was eventually diagnosed with diabetes. It goes without saying that it is a major problem in the early stages of diabetes for many people.

I've talked to many individuals who confirmed that they experienced the same issue. After all, we are used to reacting to symptoms, aren’t we?

When I have the flu, the symptoms are clear—they make themselves present and are followed by weakness and other side effects, so we take it seriously.

However, this is often not the case with early diabetes (or even later stages if symptoms don’t show themselves).

My first symptom of diabetes (which I didn't know is caused by diabetes at the time) was hypoglycemia.

I didn’t understand what was going on and attributed this feeling to just being hungry. I remember I would have lunch at 2 PM and by 4 PM, I would start feeling overly hungry, sometimes experiencing slight shaking, and in severe cases, I would feel like I was sweating.

However, it didn’t happen every day or on a regular basis, so I didn’t further examine it. Partly, this was because the feeling would go away after a meal. How wrong I was.

The Snacking Dilemma: What Happens if We Keep Snacking All the Time?

Imagine your pancreas as an exhausted runner, panting and sweating at the finish line, only to hear the starting gun go off again.

Continuous snacking throughout a day, especially on sugary or high-carb foods, doesn’t give your pancreas a break. It’s constantly producing insulin to manage the incoming glucose.

Over time, this can lead to more insulin resistance and more hormonal impairment.

Your cells become rebellious as the hardworking pancreas tries to  get those blood sugar levels back to normal.

Here are two things you must change in this case:

    Switch to a balanced diet rich in fiber, lean proteins, and healthy fats. Cut down on simple sugars and refined carbs and most importantly do not snack.

    Have 3 meals during day, last one being around 5 or 6 PM whatever is better for you, and that way you will reward your pancreas well deserved rest time of approximately 14 hours if you will have your breakfast at 8 AM.

    Most of time that that will significantly slow down or even stop further development of diabetes, depending on your body.

    Exercise: Aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week. Think brisk walks, cycling, or swimming.

    There is no need of hard intense trainings. Simple brisk walk of 40 minutes, 4 days a week will do, or you can choose any of simple exercises.

    Such exercise over 30 minutes will deplete your glucose reserve and start burning fat, and instantly lower your blood sugar level

Weight Management: Shed those extra pounds through a combination of diet and exercise. As much as overall body weight is important, even more important is visceral fat or, fat stored within the abdominal cavity and surrounds several vital organs, including the liver, pancreas and other organs.

    Regular Monitoring: Keep an eye on your blood glucose levels and A1c with regular check-ups.

    Medication: In some cases, doctors might prescribe Metformin to help improve insulin sensitivity or some other medication.

Conclusion

Early diabetes is your body’s way of trying to say - "Hey, pay attention!"

By understanding what’s happening inside, recognizing the symptoms, and making key lifestyle changes, you can turn things around.

Think of this stage as an opportunity – a chance to make changes that can prevent the progression to type 2 diabetes.

From my experience, I can say that aside from preventing its onset, the early stage of diabetes is the most crucial.

At this point, it is actually very easy to reverse the condition and return to normal, often within a month. Unfortunately, many of us are not aware of this, which is why we allow the situation to worsen from this point onward.

Diabetes is a very slow-progressing disease, making it hard to detect. By the time symptoms fully manifest, it is often close to the end stage.

Additionally, it’s important to know that diabetes is rarely discovered directly; most of the time, it is found during a routine physical examination for another issue.