World Diabetes Day – Symptoms You Should Not Ignore

Nothing really starts all at once; even rain starts as a drizzle, morphs into showers, then picks up momentum and next thing you know, the streets are flooded and you have to find a new route home.

Diabetes is like rain too. It checks in on a Wednesday afternoon while you are running errands. You feel a little light headed and you stop to recalibrate your bearings. After you have had a deep breath, maybe two, you have a clearer of sense of where you are. You grab a nutrition bar and move on with your day, telling yourself that that lightheartedness was probably as a result of the meals you might have missed.

The sugar from the nutrition bar kicks in and you proceed to have an amazingly productive day. Well, until later that evening when you alight at your stage only to find yourself cursing out loud. You were so preoccupied with your thoughts that you forgot to get your change from the conductor! You know that money is as good as lost but that doesn’t stop you from stopping in your tracks to read the matatu’s plate number. You know, just in case you bump into it some other day. Wishful thinking! But you never get the matatus plate number-you cannot see it clearly-never mind that’s it’s what, ten meters away? You chalk it up to the glare of the street lights (who regulates the voltage on these things anyway?) and move on with your life.

Water is important. Everybody knows that the number one secret to great skin and general good health is water and you are not one to be left behind. In fact, you have recently joined the ‘two liters per day’ bandwagon. Not so much for that beach body that everyone seems to be after, but because you are constantly thirsty. You are therefore drinking water by the bucket loads and it so follows that you are also peeing by the bucket loads, but that’s logical, is it not? Well, maybe not.

The truth of the matter is, if you paid closer attention to the details you missed (because you are too busy living life) you might realize that maybe, just maybe, there’s more to the dizziness, that your blurry vision has nothing to do with the glare of the light and more to do with your blood sugar and your incessant thirst followed by the consistent need to pee is not as a result of your skin regimen, but an indicator that you need to get tested for Diabetes.Diabetes is often referred to as a silent killer because of how easy its symptoms are easy to miss. The symptoms can be so mild, that you can live for years without realizing that your body continues to function improperly. You can avoid being part of the statistics by going for periodic Diabetes tests at any of our Goodlife branches. Here are a list of symptoms you should look out for:

• Thirst and excessive pee breaks
• Constant hunger
• Confusion
• Dizziness and shakiness
• Slow healing wounds
• Blurry vision

…among others. Stop by a Goodlife pharmacy this Diabetes awareness month, to learn more and to get tested for FREE! Do keep in mind however, while your blood sugar can be high for various reasons and getting tested is a start in monitoring your sugar levels, only a doctor can give an actual diagnosis on Diabetes.