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do i have sysptoms of diabetes?

J

jay2008

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hi all,
before i start i would liek to say what an amazing forum you have....thank you!

im a male,29 years old and over the past couple of years ive noticed that when i drink glucose drinks(the famous brand beggining with "L") after about 20 minutes i get the shakes and get very light headed and feel like im going to pass out.The only thing that stops this feeling is a sugar hit,normaly a chocolate bar or sugary drink.afterwards when the feeling has gone im left feeling exhausted and need to sit down.i somtimes get this feeling when i have been walking around shopping or somthing like that and need to have a sugary snack or drink to feel better.i tend to sweat alot while im having these feelings aswell

last night in bed i had the same feeling,i hadnt had any sugary drinks or food for a good 2 hours before i went to bed.i also had an intence feeling of hunger but didnt want to get out of bed because i felt light headed and was shaking.

i also suffer from very low energy and even getting out of bed and getting dressed can make me tired again and wanting to go back to bed(although i dont) the tiredness usually goes when after a while and i get on with my day.i also find it hard to concentrate and stay focused on things.i also get very tired after meals,usualy a biggish meal like a sunday dinner or if i go out for dinner and somtimes have to have a little nap to get my evergy back.The main problem is that i get called lazy as im always tried.i do eat alot but never seem to put on any weight(im 5foot 11 and 11 stone)

there is no history or diabetes in my family although my nan was mis-dianosed diabetes about 9 years ago by her doctor in london and was given medication(i dont know what type) and had been taking it regualy for years and years but it wasnt untill her husband died 4 years ago and she moved near my mum that the family doctor told her that she didnt have it :shock:

im worried about going to the doctors as i dont know what to expect,ive searched the internet and have come up with possable answers from diabetes to heart desease.my girlfried and family tend to over react with things like this and dont want to worry them but im thinking about it all the time now its getting me down.i dont have faith in my doctor as she has a habit of just passing things off with a bottle of pills and told not to worry.i would rather go to her with a possable diagnosis than let her guess.

do i have any symptoms of diabetes?
 
Obviously we cannot diagnose over the Internet BUT

If you are diabetic, your blood sugar is likely to be high, not low, so treating symptoms with sugary (non-)foods is no solution.

Do you know anyone with diabetes who could do a finger prick test? How about your local chemist? They could do a test, or introduce you to a patient who could help. They would of course have to get the other patient's agreement first. And I hope they would make you promise to see the Dr asap if the test is positive.

If you have got diabetes, the earliest possible diagnosis is desirable, as then you can be stabilised, & resume normal life in all departments, without worry. Uncontrolled diabetes is life-threatening.

Hope that helps.
 
Hello jay2008,

Your symptoms of lightheadedness, hunger and shaking,
match those of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar).
NOTE: Your blood sugar may not actually be low, but your
body thinks that it is.

Your symptoms of excessive tiredness after a big meal
may indicate that your body is having trouble dealing
with the carbohydrate from the meal (high blood sugar).

These erratic variations in blood sugar control may indicate
that your body has a problem with the production of
insulin or has become resistant to it's effects.

If you want to find out one way or the other, you're going
to need a trip to the doctors I'm afraid.

All the best,
timo.
 
hi and thankyou for your reply

i do have a friend who has diabetes and she did infact do a finger prick test on me about a year ago after i told her what happens and it came back that i had a normal blood sugar level.is this reading telling me i had normal blood sugar in general or just at the time of the test?there is a lloyds chemist near me so i willfond out if they do the tests.if they do how long do i need to wait for the results? is it there and then or will it take days?

the feeling of shaking and light headedness comes after ive ive had somthing very sugary like the gluscose drink i mentioned or a food with lots of sugar in it.

thanks
 
Finger prick tests are immediate. They do only give the BS at the time of the test, so several tests are needed, but one reading over say 10 would indicate diabetes.

You should see a Dr anyway. Illnesses are best treated.
 
Do be careful about DIY diagnosis. If you do have diabetes your blood sugars will probably be all over the place, and so they could well pass through what is considered "normal". If you are going to try this, then it should be a fasting test - i.e. before you have eaten in the morning. However, formal diagnosis is never done by finger-pricks - there are too many things that can go wrong. It is done with blood taken out of a vein (a doctor or nurse needs to do this). Even then because normal people's blood sugars can occasionally go quite high, two tests done on different days are needed. Usually a Glucose Tolerance Test is performed - for this you eat or drink a known amount of glucose with venous blood samples being taken before and a couple of hours after this. That is by far the best way of diagnosing diabetes - but again it does have to be done in a doctors surgery.

In short, get yourself do a doctor, explain your worries and get him or her to test you for diabetes. This is the only way you can be certain. Also, if it isn't diabetes then it begs the question of what the problem is - and a doctor is the best person to work that out.
 
Hi Jay,

Demand a Glucose Tolerance Test from your doctor immediately. Some of your symptoms are suggestive of widely fluctuating blood sugar levels. Your descriptions also suggest you are producing a lot of insulin, which is good in a sense because that would indicate your pancreas is perfectly up to the job. This test will tell you exactly what is going on with your carb metabolism. Until then, we can only speculate.

All the best,

fergus
 
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