15 Extremely Alarming Signs You’re Eating Too Much Sugar
The symptoms of diabetes are quite diverse. And they are very easy to confuse with others.
Therefore, it can take a long time for people who develop this disease to pay attention to thirst, digestive problems, excessive urination, and other alarms that sound from their body.
How to determine if a person can have high blood sugar?
We can live with high sugar levels for years and not be aware of it or pay attention to the warning signs.
The main symptoms are excessive urination, excessive thirst and excessive hunger.
What is behind these symptoms?
Body signals of high sugar
According to WHO recommendations, the average person should consume up to 6 g of sugar per day. However, according to the information from the above organization, an adult person consumes about 4 times more than this norm every day – about two teaspoons of sugar.
The fact is that today it is impossible to find food that does not contain sugar at all. But the body signals in time that it is receiving excess sugar.
Symptoms of high blood sugar:
Increased pressure
In people who constantly consume excess sugar, their blood pressure is higher than normal.
Experts say that for lowering blood pressure, giving up sugar is more important than using salt. Even sugar substitutes should be eliminated from the diet.
Increase in cholesterol
A large amount of sugar can disrupt the ratio of bad to good cholesterol, which affects the condition of blood vessels and heart.
Experts suggest that the problem lies in fructose’s ability to activate the production of triglycerides and LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol.
Excessive urination (polyuria)
Polyuria is the result of a biological and chemical chain reaction that occurs in the blood in the presence of excess glucose levels and pushes intracellular fluid into the circulatory system.
In this way, the body balances the concentration of glucose in the blood and cells.
The blood is diluted with intracellular fluid and blood glucose is lowered to normal. But the fluid content in the blood increases.
As a result, kidney dysfunction occurs. Our kidneys are a type of filters that remove waste and return purified fluid to the body.
The reabsorption of fluids occurs through the renal tubules, which are made up of the nephrons of the kidneys.
But if the glucose concentration exceeds the limit, there is a chance that the renal tubules will be reabsorbed, causing the so-called osmotic diuresis (excretion of an excessive volume of urine).
Until glucose returns to normal, the renal tubules will not resume fluid reabsorption.
There is a double chain reaction mechanism. The cells deliver water into the bloodstream and the kidneys cannot absorb the fluid, causing the body to expel water out of control. The result is excessive urination.
Clinical polyuria is the production of more than 2.5 liters of urine per day (healthy excretion is 1.5 liters). In extremely high sugar levels in the patient, this can reach up to 15 liters.
Excessive thirst
Polydipsia is a natural response to dehydration. The thirst signal is sent to the brain by osmoreceptors, cells in the hypothalamus that test the level of dehydration and cause thirst.
The connection between excessive urination and excessive thirst is often misinterpreted. Polyuria is caused by polydipsia, not the other way around.
Furthermore, often when you are thirsty, you drink carbonated drinks that contain huge amounts of sugar, which further exacerbates the problem.
Excessive hunger
Increased appetite is caused not so much by high blood sugar levels as by low insulin levels.
With each insulin burst, we release enough insulin to move glucose molecules from the bloodstream into the cells, where they are used as fuel for cellular processes.
If you have diabetes, you don’t take away the glucose, you start producing the hormones leptin, ghrelin, and orexin.
All of these hormones tell the hypothalamus that the body wants to eat.
Weight loss
Suppose a person eats relatively normally, but when the glucose level in the body is constantly elevated, the patient will lose weight. Why is this happening?
1. Fluid loss due to excessive urination leads to weight loss.
2. When insulin levels are insufficient to metabolize glucose, the body begins to burn fat to metabolize cells.
3. A lot of excreted urine contains a lot of glucose, which is full of calories.
Infections
The cells of our body are not the only inhabitants of the microscopic world that feed on glucose. As you know, sugar is a breeding ground for bacteria and yeast.
Urinary tract infections are much more common in women with diabetes. Both bacteria and yeast feed on glucose, and the comfortable environment for them is warm, dark and humid.
However, in addition to the presence of a large amount of glucose in the urine with long-term high sugar, it can damage nerve tissue. These changes affect your bladder’s ability to empty your bladder. And the urine that remains in it is a favorable environment for the life of various bacteria.
In addition, high blood sugar slows down blood pressure, which in turn increases the ability of leukocytes to enter the inflamed lesions.
Long wound healing
This is because neutrophils (leukocytes) are sensitive to high glucose levels.
High blood sugar prevents neutrophils from sticking to the inner walls of blood vessels, destroys chemotaxis (chemical control signals that direct neutrophils to the area of damage/infection) and inhibits phagocytosis (when cells stop and absorb solids).
Another complication of wound healing is the volume of oxygen.
Transport is disrupted by peripheral neuropathy (nerve damage) or peripheral vascular disease.
Small wounds can turn into tissue death.
They cause necrosis and can engulf the bone, leading to amputation.
Dry and itchy skin
A less dangerous, but very unpleasant and common side effect of high blood sugar is dry skin.
Itching is the first cause of this phenomenon, which is excessive urination, which can dehydrate you to the point where it dries out your skin.
Another reason – nerve damage can interfere with the normal functioning of the sweat glands, affecting the natural hydration of the skin, which affects its dryness.
Another skin condition associated with high blood sugar is diabetic dermopathy.
It appears as round or oval discolored spots on the skin. The condition is not considered dangerous, but it is bothersome.
There is also a link between high blood sugar and a tendency towards acne.
Blurred vision
This problem is the result of excessive urination.
It has been stated above that when glucose levels are high, the body pushes fluid out of the cells into the circulatory system.
This also happens in the cells of the eye. If the mucous membrane of the eye dries out, it can become deformed and the eye loses its ability to adapt normally.
Headaches and concentration problems
Our brain is the most important glucose meter in the blood. When brain cells have difficulty getting the fuel they need, they begin to malfunction.
This can cause problems with memory, thinking and comprehension, as well as problems concentrating on tasks.
Headaches are also a common consequence of high glucose levels.
Fatigue
If blood sugar is excessively high, the body does not store and use it properly. Energy is also lost and cells do not receive the necessary fuel. The result is a decrease in physical energy.
Therefore, exhausted people are more likely to turn to high-carb foods to replenish their energy quickly, which of course only makes things worse.
If you feel like a squeezed lemon every day, revise your diet: give up sweets, coffee, sweets.
Chronic constipation or chronic diarrhea
Both conditions can be triggered by high blood glucose levels, which affect the way the intestines function. If the small intestine is affected, diarrhea occurs, and the large intestine is constipated.
The function of the small intestine is to absorb nutrients from food that has already been digested, and the function of the large intestine is to absorb water from indigestible residues.
If high glucose neuropathy affects the intestinal nerves in the small intestine, there is a motility dysfunction, which leads to delayed emptying of the colon.
There is stagnation of fluids in the small intestine, bacterial overgrowth, gas and diarrhea. Diarrhea is a constant companion of 22 percent of people with diabetes.
Nerve damage can also interfere with the flow of debris through the colon. Little movement, dehydration, and constipation. Medications, especially narcotic painkillers or antidepressants, make things worse.
Irritability
High blood sugar has been shown to cause depression and adversely affect the ability to think quickly and make decisions.
Experts disagree. One theory is that normal brain function depends on glucose uptake, and fluctuations in concentration cause brain dysfunction.
The second theory is based on the fact that the problem is in the speed of nerve “conduction”.
Erectile dysfunction
Erectile dysfunction is a common side effect of high blood glucose levels, and about half of men with cycles experience it in their 50s.
A healthy erection means healthy nerves, healthy blood flow and the right balance of hormones. In order for special signals to appear, they cause blood vessels to dilate and blood flow in them increases.
When the spongy tissue is saturated with blood, it comes into contact with the outer shell of the elastic tissue, which “closes”.
This temporarily interrupts the veins, allowing your erection to stabilize.
High sugar levels affect your erection in three ways: endocrine, vascular, and neurological.
In the hormonal background, high sugar levels disrupt the production of nitric oxide, which causes a hormonal chain reaction, weakens blood vessels and prevents the cavernous body from filling with blood.
In the vascular system, excess sugar is very dangerous for blood vessels, as it reduces the efficiency of the arteries. Likewise, nerve damage affects both the senses and the nerve signals received.
Even worse is the fact that there are common drugs that contribute to erectile dysfunction.
These are drugs to lower blood pressure, as well as some antidepressants that interfere with the expansion of blood vessels.
High blood pressure and depression are often associated with diabetes, and men with the disease take one or more of these medications.
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