Mr. Sun, 52, was diagnosed with diabetes five years ago, and his doctor told him about the dangers of diabetes and the things he should pay attention to in his life, but he was not convinced and thought he didn’t feel anything, so he continued to do what he did, smoking and drinking every day without any treatment, until now, he finally “felt it”. He had a loss of vision and numbness and pain in his hands. The company’s main goal is to provide a comprehensive range of products and services to the public.
After treatment, Sun’s blood sugar was under control, but Sun’s diabetic comorbidity was irreversible and Sun regretted it. The first time I saw this, I was able to get to the bottom of it. It has been proven that diabetes should never be treated based on feelings alone.
No feeling is not the same as no disease
Diabetes is a chronic metabolic disease that evolves from a quantitative to a qualitative process. Most of the symptoms of diabetes are hidden and can even be asymptomatic, and even if there is loss of vision, edema, fatigue, numbness in the hands and feet, and decreased sexual function, most people do not associate it with diabetes and often find elevated blood sugar only when they go to the hospital because of discomfort. So most of the diabetes found in this way has had a fairly long course and has developed chronic complications of diabetes.
In fact, early detection of diabetes can be achieved if patients can detect some telltale changes in their bodies early, such as excessive drinking, excessive urination, easy hunger, unexplained weight loss, itchy skin, non-healing wounds, recurrent urinary tract infections, etc. They should go to the hospital for early detection of diabetes.
In addition, regular health checkups are also beneficial for early detection. It is important to note that people at high risk for diabetes, such as those with a family history of diabetes, those over 40 years of age, those who are obese, especially abdominal obesity, those with hypertension, hyperlipidemia, a sedentary lifestyle, those who rarely exercise, those who work under stress, those with a history of gestational diabetes and a history of having a large fetus, and those who take antidepressants for a long time, should pay particular attention to screening for diabetes.
No feeling, not the same as no harm
In clinical practice, many patients with diabetes often think that they don’t need treatment because they don’t feel it, which can delay the best time to treat them.
The danger of diabetes is the complications of diabetes. Diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of adult blindness, diabetic nephropathy is the leading cause of end-stage renal disease, diabetic peripheral neuropathy and lower extremity vasculopathy leading to diabetic foot is the leading cause of non-traumatic amputation, and diabetes can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease by 2 to 4 times.
The development of diabetic complications is a chronic process that can be asymptomatic and uncomfortable in the early stages, but the damage all proceeds silently and these damages are irreversible. And as the disease progresses, the quality of life will be significantly reduced as multiple organs of the diabetic patient diminish in function.
In the early stages of diabetes when it is just detected, the kind of treatment that is taken and how well the blood glucose is controlled directly determines how well the disease progresses. Therefore, it is important to take active and effective treatment immediately after early detection to try to control blood glucose at a desirable and stable level in order to delay the onset of complications and maintain a good quality of life, and not to wait until 5 or 10 years later when complications appear and the individual’s life is threatened before starting treatment, which is too late.
No feeling doesn’t mean good blood sugar control
Many people with diabetes believe that just because they don’t “feel” it means they have good control of their blood glucose, which is a very harmful misconception. Diabetes is a highly variable disease that is constantly changing, and as the disease lengthens, the patient’s body may adapt to the high blood glucose and not experience discomfort.
But if you think your blood glucose is normal because you don’t feel it, and you relax your blood glucose monitoring and treatment, then when the symptoms come back, it’s often too late to regret it!
So once you are diagnosed with diabetes, you need to be prepared for the long haul, not only with long-term treatment, but also with long-term monitoring of your blood sugar.
The common clinical indicators for monitoring blood glucose are fasting blood glucose, 2-hour postprandial blood glucose, and glycated hemoglobin. The patient with well-controlled, stable diabetes should have their fasting and 2-hour postprandial glucose reviewed at least once every half month and their glycated hemoglobin reviewed once every 3 months. For those with poorly controlled or unstable blood glucose, fasting and 2-hour postprandial glucose monitoring should be done at least once a day, and preferably once a week for 7 times a day.
For patients with diabetes, the only way to achieve true blood glucose control is to have active blood glucose monitoring, not to “follow your feelings.