The Big Five Borderline Diabetes Symptoms

Borderline diabetes symptoms are easy to list because we know them, but they can also be easy to miss if you aren't looking for them.

They are the things to watch for if you think you might be prediabetic. I call them the big five because doctors mention them the most, and if you know what to watch for, they are easy to recognize. The first two are increased thirst and frequent urination.

Diabetes (the word means siphon out) has been diagnosed for thousands of years by the increased amount of urine (sweet urine, they called it), and increased thirst that go along with the disease.

Picture this. Beta cells in your pancreas are pumping out insulin, the hormone that carries glucose into cells, but the cells are resisting insulin's efforts. That's insulin resistance. It also may be that your beta cells are damaged or sick and aren't responding to the call for insulin as fast as they're supposed to.

The end result of both is too much sugar traveling in the blood, and your body responds by siphoning it out in your urine. That takes a lot of water. So you're extra thirsty, and you go to the bathroom often. If you do a urine test it will show high sugar content.

That's two of the five warning signs. Another is fatigue. If your cells are resisting insulin, they are still hungry even when there's plenty of glucose floating around. You get tired. That's three.

Blurred vision is number four. This symptom comes and goes as your blood sugar fluctuates. Eyes are very sensitive, and they can be a useful warning sign that blood sugar is not normal.

Number five is the newest one of the borderline diabetes symptoms that doctors are talking about. Are you consistently sleeping less than six hours a night? High blood sugar might be the reason you aren't sleeping well.

There they are, the big five:

Excessive urinationIncreased thirstFatigueBlurred visionSleeping 5-1/2 hours or less a night

But wait, just because you have not noticed any of these borderline diabetic symptoms, that does not mean you're free of prediabetes. There is another list you need to look at. The more things you find on this list that fit you, the more likely you'll find yourself a prediabetic.

Is your BMI (body mass index) over 25, a lot over? Is your exercise level little to none? That means you're sedentary and overweight - two of the four symptoms in the metabolic syndrome, the biggest cause of insulin resistance. If you have high triglycerides and high blood pressure, that's the other two symptoms. If you have all four, you have the whole metabolic syndrome.

Are you over 45? Does a parent, grandparent, aunt or uncle have type 2 diabetes? That increases your risk by half again. Women with polycystic ovarian syndrome or who have had gestational diabetes during a pregnancy are on this list too.

Genetic risk factors have to be faced. If your racial origins include native American, black, Hispanic, or Asian roots, you're twice as likely to develop type 2 diabetes, so just being over 45 and in one of those groups means you ought to get your blood sugar tested every year whether you have borderline diabetes symptoms or not.

What Does It Matter?

It matters because if you find out you are prediabetic there are steps you can take, things you can do to lower your blood sugar and put off, sometimes forever, becoming a type 2 diabetic. You can't do anything about genetics, family history and age, but you can end the metabolic syndrome and lower your insulin resistance. A lower body mass index (it doesn't have to be perfect, just lower), increased exercise and some diet adjustments might do the trick. For a lot of people those things are enough.

The key to all this is to find out if you are borderline diabetic, and the only way to really be sure is to get your blood sugar tested. Get the hemoglobin A1c, or a fasting blood test, or better yet the glucose tolerance test, and find out where you are. Understanding the borderline diabetic symptoms can help, but nothing beats seeing the numbers and knowing for sure.

Don't let the diabetic tidal wave knock you off your feet and carry you away. Heed the warnings and do the wise things. Ignorance is not bliss, it's just dumb. I can say that because I already tried it.

Martha Zimmer invites you to visit her website and learn more about type 2 diabetes, its complications and how you can deal with them, as well as great tips for eating healthy that will make living with diabetes less painful.