7 Early Warning Signs of High Blood Sugar

High blood sug­ar is a con­di­tion with poten­tial­ly grave con­se­quences. As such, it demands seri­ous atten­tion, espe­cial­ly due to the hid­den symp­toms it pos­sess­es. Rec­og­niz­ing signs ear­ly on is key for effec­tive­ly man­ag­ing and pre­vent­ing com­pli­ca­tions. Also known as hyper­glycemia, the issue can come about with or with­out dia­betes and can wreak hav­oc on the body if left unchecked. Organ dam­age, nerve impair­ment, and vas­cu­lar issues top the list, but issues per­sist through­out the whole body.¹

Constant Thirst

Unquench­able thirst is a tell­tale sign of high blood sug­ar. Also called polyuria, it is a result of the kid­neys being unable to absorb excess glu­cose, lead­ing to dehy­dra­tion paired with per­sis­tent thirst. As your blood sug­ar lev­els rise, your kid­neys have to work over­time to get rid of any sur­plus glu­cose via urine, which in turn caus­es a spike in how often you need to uri­nate. The exces­sive loss of flu­ids trig­gers a thirst that can­not be eas­i­ly quenched.²

Read More: 10 Nat­ur­al Home Reme­dies To Help Low­er High Blood Pres­sure

Increased Eating Habits

Hav­ing high blood sug­ar dis­rupts how ener­gy is con­vert­ed, which trig­gers a height­ened sense of hunger. The body is unable to con­vert food into ener­gy, prompt­ing increased food intake. This results in glu­cose unsuc­cess­ful­ly (at best, inef­fi­cient­ly) enter­ing cells due to insulin resis­tance. The glu­cose then remains in the blood­stream, telling the brain that you need more fuel. This results in indi­vid­u­als expe­ri­enc­ing a feel­ing of insa­tiable hunger and fre­quent snack­ing, despite con­sum­ing suf­fi­cient calo­ries which only fur­ther per­pet­u­ates the prob­lem.³

Constant Urination

Fre­quent uri­na­tion, close­ly linked with the con­stant feel­ing of being thirsty, indi­cates the kid­neys are strug­gling to elim­i­nate any excess sug­ar in your blood­stream. This is a fair­ly sim­ple way to iden­ti­fy ele­vat­ed blood sug­ar lev­els. When your blood sug­ar lev­els sur­pass the kid­neys’ fil­tra­tion abil­i­ty, glu­cose then spills over into the urine, tak­ing excess water along with it. This leads to a cycle of increased urine pro­duc­tion, more fre­quent trips to the bath­room, dehy­dra­tion, more liq­uid con­sumed, and then start­ing it all over again. Indi­vid­u­als may even find them­selves wak­ing up through the night to pee, dis­rupt­ing their sleep pat­terns.

Chronic Fatigue

Despite hav­ing more poten­tial ener­gy to call on, high blood sug­ar often leads to fatigue and weak­ness from increased uri­na­tion and dehy­dra­tion, which in turn ham­pers your ener­gy pro­duc­tion. When cells don’t have glu­cose, the body breaks down mus­cle and fat for fuel instead. Which can be great for weight loss, but also has the unin­tend­ed con­se­quence of sig­nif­i­cant­ly low­ered ener­gy lev­els. Also, the dehy­dra­tion fur­ther exac­er­bates the feel­ings of fatigue, leav­ing indi­vid­u­als feel­ing drained and lethar­gic.⁴

Headaches and Blurry Vision 

The flu­id leak­age caused by ele­vat­ed blood sug­ar lev­els can cause blur­ry vision. High blood sug­ar can cause swelling behind the eyes from flu­id accu­mu­la­tion, which leads to dis­tort­ed vision and makes it dif­fi­cult to focus. The increased swelling can also trig­ger headaches, fur­ther impact­ing qual­i­ty of life and pro­duc­tiv­i­ty.

Read More: Feel Lazy Some­times? Don’t Wor­ry it May Help Reduce Stress, High Blood Pres­sure, and Improve Men­tal Health

Tingling and Numbness in Hands and Feet

Also known as dia­bet­ic neu­ropa­thy, it’s char­ac­ter­ized by nerve dam­age that may man­i­fest as tin­gling or numb­ness in your extrem­i­ties. Pro­longed ele­vat­ed blood sug­ar lev­els can dam­age nerves through­out your entire body, lead­ing to sen­so­ry issues like tin­gling, numb­ness, or pain in the hands and feet. These symp­toms are often sub­tle at first but can progress to sig­nif­i­cant dis­com­fort and impair­ment of dai­ly activ­i­ties.

Changes in Your Skin

Skin infec­tions, dry­ness, blis­ters, and itch­i­ness can be indi­ca­tors of ele­vat­ed blood sug­ar lev­els. Addi­tion­al­ly, gum dis­ease in the form of swollen or bleed­ing gums is a com­mon com­pli­ca­tion. Hav­ing high blood sug­ar com­pro­mis­es the body’s abil­i­ty to fight off infec­tions, result­ing in recur­ring skin issues like fun­gal infec­tions and slow wound heal­ing. Ele­vat­ed glu­cose lev­els can also cre­ate the ide­al envi­ron­ment for bac­te­ria to thrive in your mouth, which can turn into peri­odon­tal dis­ease, hal­i­to­sis, and gum inflam­ma­tion.

Bottom Line 

t is extreme­ly impor­tant to see the signs of high blood sug­ar lev­els as soon as pos­si­ble. Know­ing empow­ers indi­vid­u­als to com­bat and min­i­mize any of the numer­ous poten­tial com­pli­ca­tions. By rec­og­niz­ing these signs, indi­vid­u­als can seek prompt med­ical atten­tion and take on a lifestyle that bet­ter man­ages their con­di­tion effec­tive­ly. Vig­i­lance and proac­tiv­i­ty are key in safe­guard­ing one’s health against the detri­men­tal effects of high blood sug­ar.

Read More: Baby Dies with High Alco­hol Lev­el in Blood. Should Drink­ing be Off Lim­its while Breast­feed­ing?

Sources

1. “8 Ear­ly Warn­ing Symp­toms Of High Blood Sug­ar.” Providr
2. “Ear­ly Signs and Symp­toms of Dia­betes.” Web­MD. Ter­ri D’Arrigo.
3. “What are the ear­ly signs of type 2 dia­betes?” Med­ical News Today. Nicole Galan, RN. Jan­u­ary 25, 2024.
4. “9 Signs Your Blood Sug­ar Is Out of Con­trol.” Every­day Health. Sheryl Hug­gins Salomon.