Uncommon Signs of High Blood Sugar Levels

  •   Wed, Jun 05 2024
  •   By Dr Shrinath P Shetty

June 5, 2024 

Diabetes is a metabolic disease characterized by excess sugar in the blood. Commonly this disease is commonly characterized by complications involving the nerves, kidney and retina. It also increases the risk of heart attack, stroke and foot ulcers. However, diabetes can practically involve any organ; the individual susceptibility to various complications varies from person to person. It is not very uncommon to have unusual complications in people with diabetes; a few of them are discussed below. 

  1. Silent Heart Attack - Patients with diabetes have a higher risk of heart disease than the general population. Patients with diabetes tend to have all 3 major blood vessels involved compared to single blood vessel involvement in others. To add to the problem, patients with diabetes experience silent heart attacks. Unlike normal people who experience severe chest pain, these patients do not experience pain. They may just experience difficulty in walking or breathlessness while carrying out activities of daily living. 
  1. Infections - Poorly controlled diabetes reduces the immunity of the patient. Hence, there are some infections which are only seen in patients with uncontrolled diabetes; these are described as follows: 
  • Rhinocerebral Mucormycosis - This is an aggressive fungal infection which infects the nose and eye region of the face. It is promoted by high sugars- especially diabetic ketoacidosis.
  • Malignant Otitis Externa - 90 % of these patients have diabetes. Majority of the patients have infection due to an aggressive bacteria called Pseudomonas aeruginosa. These patients need tight sugar control, needs surgery along with IV antibiotics.
  • Emphysematous Pyelonephritis - Here the patient has accumulation of air in the kidney due to severe urinary tract infection. 
  1. Charcot's foot - Patients with poorly controlled diabetes have autonomic system changes followed by increase in blood supply to the foot - causing foot deformities (changes in foot shape). Management depends on the type and severity, usually requiring modified footwear. 
  1. Autonomic dysfunction - Both high and low sugars can cause autonomic dysfunction, patients can have sudden fall in blood pressure while standing up. Some of the patients may not experience symptoms of low sugars which happens in normal individuals - leading to sudden loss of consciousness. 
  1. Gastroparesis - Subjects who have diabetes for a long time tend to have to retain food in the stomach for a longer duration compared to normal individuals. This causes loss of appetite and nausea. Also, due to mismatch between the time of action of the medicines and food intake - patients frequently experience hypoglycemia (low sugars). 
  1. Seizures - Very High blood sugars can lead to seizures. Improvement in the sugars improves the disease outcomes.  
  1. Thinning of skin and purple stretch marks - Sometimes diabetes is secondary to excess steroid production from our body; this condition is called Cushing's Syndrome. If picked up in the right time, this diabetes can be reversed. 
  1. Change in footwear size and change in facial features - Diabetes can be sometimes secondary to excess of growth hormone- a condition known as Acromegaly. Patients usually present with change in facial features and increase in footwear size.  
  1. Unexplained weight loss - Subjects with poor glycemic control, especially if HbA1C is > 9 % experience weight loss. This is mainly because the excess sugar in the blood is lost in the urine. Good sugar control can reverse the condition.  
  1. Reactivation of infections - Poorly controlled sugars can re-activate tuberculosis, due to poor immunity; which sometimes could be drug resistant. 

Hence diabetes being a common disorder, which is often neglected, needs to be seen through a magnifying glass- to avoid these kinds of complications.

 

 

 
By Dr Shrinath P Shetty
Dr Shrinath P Shetty, Endocrinologist, KMC Hospital, Mangaluru.
To submit your article / poem / short story to Daijiworld, please email it to news@daijiworld.com mentioning 'Article/poem submission for daijiworld' in the subject line. Please note the following:

  • The article / poem / short story should be original and previously unpublished in other websites except in the personal blog of the author. We will cross-check the originality of the article, and if found to be copied from another source in whole or in parts without appropriate acknowledgment, the submission will be rejected.
  • The author of the poem / article / short story should include a brief self-introduction limited to 500 characters and his/her recent picture (optional). Pictures relevant to the article may also be sent (optional), provided they are not bound by copyright. Travelogues should be sent along with relevant pictures not sourced from the Internet. Travelogues without relevant pictures will be rejected.
  • In case of a short story / article, the write-up should be at least one-and-a-half pages in word document in Times New Roman font 12 (or, about 700-800 words). Contributors are requested to keep their write-ups limited to a maximum of four pages. Longer write-ups may be sent in parts to publish in installments. Each installment should be sent within a week of the previous installment. A single poem sent for publication should be at least 3/4th of a page in length. Multiple short poems may be submitted for single publication.
  • All submissions should be in Microsoft Word format or text file. Pictures should not be larger than 1000 pixels in width, and of good resolution. Pictures should be attached separately in the mail and may be numbered if the author wants them to be placed in order.
  • Submission of the article / poem / short story does not automatically entail that it would be published. Daijiworld editors will examine each submission and decide on its acceptance/rejection purely based on merit.
  • Daijiworld reserves the right to edit the submission if necessary for grammar and spelling, without compromising on the author's tone and message.
  • Daijiworld reserves the right to reject submissions without prior notice. Mails/calls on the status of the submission will not be entertained. Contributors are requested to be patient.
  • The article / poem / short story should not be targeted directly or indirectly at any individual/group/community. Daijiworld will not assume responsibility for factual errors in the submission.
  • Once accepted, the article / poem / short story will be published as and when we have space. Publication may take up to four weeks from the date of submission of the write-up, depending on the number of submissions we receive. No author will be published twice in succession or twice within a fortnight.
  • Time-bound articles (example, on Mother's Day) should be sent at least a week in advance. Please specify the occasion as well as the date on which you would like it published while sending the write-up.

Comment on this article

  • Rita, Germany

    Thu, Jun 06 2024

    Dear Doctor ,very informative about high blood Sugar level .Which one learns new everyday .Thank you .


Leave a Comment

Title: Uncommon Signs of High Blood Sugar Levels



You have 2000 characters left.

Disclaimer:

Please write your correct name and email address. Kindly do not post any personal, abusive, defamatory, infringing, obscene, indecent, discriminatory or unlawful or similar comments. Daijiworld.com will not be responsible for any defamatory message posted under this article.

Please note that sending false messages to insult, defame, intimidate, mislead or deceive people or to intentionally cause public disorder is punishable under law. It is obligatory on Daijiworld to provide the IP address and other details of senders of such comments, to the authority concerned upon request.

Hence, sending offensive comments using daijiworld will be purely at your own risk, and in no way will Daijiworld.com be held responsible.