Recognizing & Managing Symptoms of Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes

Living with diabetes can be challenging, but for those who are at high risk, it can become stressful trying to figure out how to recognize symptoms of diabetes, as well as coming up with tactics to manage these symptoms.

Not to worry, because this page will help you recognize the early warning signs of diabetes, how to know if you have diabetes, the types of diabetes you could experience (as well as prediabetes symptoms), which can be used to identify that you’re at risk of diabetes occurring.

SIDE NOTE: If you hear diabetes referred to as ‘diabetes mellitus’, this is actually the overhead term used to define a disease that causes inadequate control of blood sugar (glucose) levels.

Both types of diabetes (type 1 and type 2) fall into the diabetes mellitus category, but most often, your practitioner will refer to the specific type of diabetes you have, because each type requires unique treatment and management plans. At this time, Felix only offers support for type 2 diabetes.

How to Recognize Early Warning Signs of Diabetes

The early warning signs of diabetes will actually look pretty similar, regardless of whether you’re in the early stages of type 1 or type 2 diabetes.

This could include early warning signs like:

• Increased weakness or fatigue
• Urinating more often
• Increased hunger or food cravings
• Dry mouth
• Frequent feelings of thirst
• Unintentional or unexplained weight loss

It’s important to note that although both types of diabetes have the same early warning signs, many people do not experience early warning signs or symptoms. 

This is why it’s so important to regularly schedule check-ups with your practitioner, as well as intermittent blood testing, so that you can ensure your blood sugar levels remain as safe and stable as possible.

Common Symptoms of Diabetes

This brings us to how to know if you have diabetes. It can be difficult to identify the differences between prediabetes symptoms and diabetes symptoms, without the help of a practitioner.

The early warning signs of type 2 diabetes may be difficult to identify, because symptoms may be more mild and develop more slowly. In fact, you could actually go years without symptoms of type 2 diabetes developing, which may prevent you from recognizing you even have an issue.

With that in mind, you should be sure to get your blood tested if you start to show any of the following diabetes symptoms:

• Excessive urination (especially at night)
• Blurred vision
• Tingling or numbness in your hands or feet
• Chronic/frequent fatigue
• Very dry skin
• Sores that heal more slowly than usual
• Experiencing more infections than usual
• Losing weight without trying and without reason
• Feeling extremely thirsty all the time

If you’re at a high risk for diabetes to occur, your practitioner may want to arrange for intermittent blood work to be completed, so that you can catch any potential early warning signs of type 2 diabetes, as soon as they begin to present.

Tingling or Numbness in Hands and Feet

Tingling in the hands and feet caused by diabetes is actually one of the signs of diabetic neuropathy, which is usually the result of long-term, unmanaged high blood sugar levels.

Over time, these high blood sugar levels can begin to damage nerves in your body; particularly, in your hands and feet. In turn, if blood sugar levels are untreated for extended periods of time, type 2 diabetes may cause tingling in the hands and feet.

You can support the prevention of this diabetes symptom from occurring by doing things like eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly, blood sugar management, losing weight, quitting smoking, etc., which also help encourage healthier blood sugar and blood pressure levels.

If you’re starting to experience symptoms like tingling in the hands and feet, and you haven’t already talked to someone about it, it’s a good time to talk to a practitioner at Felix to ensure your blood sugar levels are managed and stable.

Frequent Urination & Increased Thirst

Frequent urination with diabetes and increased thirst are actually tied together, which would explain why so often people experience both of these early warning signs of diabetes at the same time.

On average, you might urinate 4-7 times every 24 hours, but for people with diabetes, this number can be higher. This is because your kidneys absorb glucose as urine passes through them.

However, when you have diabetes it pushes your blood sugar levels higher, preventing your kidneys from absorbing all the glucose. This causes your body to create more urine to allow for more absorption, and therefore, more frequent urination with diabetes occurs.

Extra urination leads to dehydration, which in turn, causes you to feel thirsty more often. If you’re urinating frequently, you may find that you’re also constantly feeling thirsty.

Unexplained Weight Loss & Fatigue

When you have type 2 diabetes, you may also have insulin resistance. This is when your body doesn’t respond to its own insulin production the way that it’s supposed to. This causes your pancreas to create more insulin to fight the fact that your body feels it’s not getting enough.

Since your pancreas can’t make enough insulin to get enough sugars into your cells, your blood sugar levels rise. And since your cells aren’t getting the sugars that they need from glucose, they start breaking down stored fat cells to use as sugars.

The result of this can be unexplained weight loss caused by diabetes. And because your body is working harder to get the sugars it needs into your cells to function, it can also lead to chronic fatigue.

In addition to this, it’s good to remember that weight loss is common among patients during the prevention of diabetes phase, where you may only be experiencing prediabetes symptoms, but have not yet received a full diagnosis for type 2 diabetes.

This is because a healthy diet and regular exercise are always recommended alongside diabetes care, which can each also contribute to positive weight loss and weight management.

Blurred Vision 

Many people don’t realize this, but diabetes causes blurred vision in some patients.

Similarly to how high blood sugar levels can damage nerves in the hands and feet over time, if left unchecked, unregulated high blood sugar can also damage the blood vessels in the retinas of your eyes (the tissue lining at the back of each eye).

Specifically, these blood vessels in your eyes swell, which causes leaks into your retina. These fluid leaks can cause blurred vision or even blind spots in your vision.

Over time, if continued to be left untreated, new blood vessels may grow. These new blood vessels can cause further damage to your vision, even leading to blindness or partial blindness in extreme cases.

Skin Changes

In addition to things like fatigue, blurred vision, and tingling in the hands and feet, diabetes may also cause changes in the texture of your skin. In fact, 1-in-3 patients with diabetes will experience skin issues that’s either caused by or worsened by their diabetes.

This is tied back to high blood sugar levels that occur for patients with either types of diabetes, which frequently leads to dehydration. Dehydration means that your skin doesn’t get the moisture that it needs to remain healthy, and therefore, causes skin to become rough, scaly, or dry to the touch.

Similar to how nerve damage caused by untreated diabetes may cause vision problems or tingling in the hands or feet, nerve damage can also affect your skin. Nerve damage in your skin can lead to both decreased sweating as well as dry skin.

What is Prediabetes?

Prediabetes is just another way to say that you’re already showing higher than normal blood sugar levels, but they’re not high enough to be considered type 2 diabetes - yet.

The symptoms of prediabetes present the same as the early warning signs of diabetes, which is that you may not notice symptoms at all, or there may be mild symptoms that indicate your blood sugar levels are higher than normal.

By the same token, prevention of diabetes and prediabetes involve the same tactics: living a healthy lifestyle, exercising regularly, and monitoring blood sugar levels to ensure they remain safe/stable.

How Do Symptoms Differ Between Type 1 & 2 Diabetes?

When it comes to actual early warning signs of diabetes or prediabetes symptoms, there aren’t a lot of differences between type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

However, there are some notable differences between the two types of diabetes mellitus that we can note here, such as:

• Type 1 diabetes is normally diagnosed in childhood, adolescence, or early adulthood, where type 2 diabetes is usually diagnosed in adults over the age of 40.
• Type 1 diabetes requires daily doses of insulin or an insulin pump to manage, while type 2 diabetes may be able to be managed using lifestyle changes (i.e., diet, exercise, etc.), medical care , or both.
• The risk factors for type 1 diabetes includes: certain genetic factors, having a family history of diabetes, and possible exposure from certain viruses or illnesses, while type 2 diabetes has a much wider variety of potential risk factors (i.e., age, ethnicity, obesity, smoking, high blood pressure/cholesterol, etc.).
• Type 1 diabetes cannot be prevented, while type 2 diabetes may be able to be prevented, or at least, delayed, using blood sugar maintenance plans.

What to Do If You Notice Warning Signs of Diabetes

Your best bet if you start to notice the early warning signs of diabetes, or symptoms of prediabetes, is to request blood work from your practitioner.

Blood work will be able to identify quickly and accurately whether your blood sugar levels are stable and at a healthy level. If they aren’t, your practitioner will want to discuss potential treatment plans  (, which may be able to help you get your blood sugar under control, so that it can be maintained at safe levels.

If you’re wondering when to see an endocrinologist for diabetes (i.e., a doctor who specializes in diabetes care  specifically), it will depend on whether your practitioner is able to find an effective treatment plan for treating your prediabetes or diabetes symptoms.

When Should I Talk to a Practitioner About Diabetes Symptoms?

If you’re starting to show any of the early warning signs of diabetes, or prediabetes symptoms, then it’s time to talk to a practitioner to get the guidance and care  you need.

It only takes a few minutes to fill out your online assessment with Felix, from the comfort and privacy of your own home, and one of our practitioners will usually get back to your request within 24 hours. They’ll be able to help you develop a diabetes or prediabetes management plan that can help reduce your symptoms, as well as improve your daily quality of life.

With Felix in your corner, you can start taking back control of your health and happiness, so that you can get back to living life on your terms - the way it should be.