Diabetes can be deadly but it doesn’t have to be as long as it is detected early and there’s easy access to proper diabetes care. Diabetes remains a growing health concern as the number of diabetics has grown exponentially in the last 40 years.
The year 2021 makes it a hundred years since the first human got an insulin shot and you would think that after a hundred years, shortage of insulin or lack of it would have been a thing of the past but no, it’s still a major challenge and the cost of insulin is also a problem.
Before the discovery of insulin in 1921, diabetes was a strange illness and people who had it, didn’t live for long because there was nothing doctors could do for them,(imagine all the horrific stages and worst stages of diabetes, imagine going through that without a glimpse of hope that a cure will come.)
It’s amazing how far science has come through research. We now know the lifestyles and habits that put individuals at risk of developing diabetes, physical warning signs of diabetes, how to manage diabetes with natural remedies and where and how to get proper medical care for diabetes, aren’t these just amazing? More effort needs to be put into educating people in low and medium-income countries about diabetes and making diabetes care affordable and accessible for them.
Diabetes needs constant and ongoing care to manage and avoid complications.
In 2007, the 14th of November was designated world diabetes day and according to the United Nations, there was an urgent need to pursue multilateral efforts to promote and improve human health and provide access to treatment and healthcare education.” hence the creation and celebration of world diabetes day.
5 skin warning signs of diabetes
According to Dr Berg, a popular YouTuber, there are some warning signs of diabetes that the skin will give you, once those signs begin to show, kindly visit the hospital. The complications that come from diabetes are enormous and trigger other life-threatening diseases that no one would ever want to deal with.
- A dark velvety patch in the armpit or behind the neck: I see this patch a lot, especially on overweight people and I always wondered what it was. That patch is called Acanthosis Nigricans, it occurs in people who are obese and have diabetes or are in the prediabetic stage. This can also be a sign of another serious problem with the internal organs, so make sure to check it out if you have the patch.
- Boils and cysts: it’s ok to have a boil pop up once in a while, but when it becomes regular, then you need to check it. Boils and cysts are also early signs but high blood sugar levels can also cause regular boils because they leave your skin porous and susceptible to bacterial and fungal infection.
- Itchy dry rashes: these rashes can be a normal skin issue but it’s also a sign of prediabetes. These rashes will not go away if it’s an early warning sign, you need to work on lowering your blood sugar level and possibly go on a keto diet to reduce glucose in the blood and stop being sedentary.
- Hard Thickened skin: this happens in the back of the hand, knuckles and toes. The fingers may become difficult to move, and the palms may look waxy. If the sugar level remains uncontrolled, the thickened skin may progress and appear in more parts of the body.
- Skin tags are soft coloured growth that hangs on the skin. These tags are often linked with high blood sugar and diabetes, skin tags do not affect the body in any way, they may just not be appealing to the eye. Skin tags come from a virus and having an uncontrolled sugar level brings the virus out of remission, hence the tags. So if you are suddenly having tags out of the blue, it means your sugar level is off the chart.
These are only a few early warning signs of diabetes and this is mostly the prediabetic stage or just uncontrolled sugar level stage and this is the best time to nip it in before it blows into full diabetes. Diabetes is a lifelong illness and pretty hard to manage, considering the lifestyle changes and diet changes you would have to make to stay healthy and alive.
To avoid being diabetic, control your sugar level by exercising regularly, eating whole foods and less processed food, checking your blood sugar often and avoiding lifestyles and habits that put you at risk of developing diabetes.