Diabetes And Fatigue: How To Fight It
One of the most significant symptoms experienced by people with diabetes is excessive fatigue, a feeling that about half of people with diabetes report experiencing.
However, care should be taken to differentiate acute fatigue from chronic fatigue in order to explain the causes specific to each and decide how best to treat them.
Can Diabetes Cause Extreme Fatigue
If you feel exhausted and tired all the time, despite the amount of sleep or food you have, the possible reason for that can be type 2 diabetes.
People with type 2 diabetes are about ten times more likely to experience weakness, exhaustion, and fatigue. According to a recent study that compared people living with diabetes and those without the chronic condition. Glucose is a major source of energy for all cells in our body cells, tissues, and organs. Especially the brain.
A person with type 2 diabetes does not respond normally to the insulin produced by the body. As a result, glucose has a harder time getting into cells and doing its job of supplying energy. This is resulting in cells having less energy to function properly. As a consequence, a person develops generalized fatigue.
Now, this is not the end of the story. Chronic fatigue in type 2 diabetes is typically multi-factorial. Stress, depression, increased body mass index , and a lack of exercise can all be contributors to fatigue in people with type 2 diabetes. It affects insulin’s ability to deliver glucose from the bloodstream into tissues, such as those in the heart, brain, and muscles.
Meanwhile, many people with type 2 diabetes also have coexisting problems and conditions. Heart disease, kidney damage, and depression all can further increase fatigue. Many hypertension medications are known to cause fatigue.
RELATED: Life Challenges- Diabetes
Is Feeling Fatigue A Sign/symptom Of Diabetes
Feeling fatigued is definitely a symptom of diabetes. However, fatigue can also be a sign or symptom of many other diseases, so it is important that you talk to your doctor about any problems that you are having.
I advise reading the following:
Reactive hypoglycemia, a term used to define the crash that a person gets after eating a lot of sugar and carbs, can be an early sign of diabetes. In order for the body to use the sugars and carbs that are consumed for fuel, each molecule must be paired with insulin to get into the cell. If there isnt enough insulin available, then the sugar molecules stay in the bloodstream and cause high blood sugar.
What happens is that over time, eating a lot of sugar and carbs causes your body to have to produce a lot of insulin. Eventually, you develop insulin resistance and the insulin stops working as well which causes your body to make even more to keep the blood sugar under control. So after eating a large meal of sugar and carbs, the body starts producing a lot of insulin to try to use the food for energy. The problem is that after the food is digested, there is still insulin floating around and it causes the sugar to drop.
Signs of reactive hypoglycemia are:
- Difficulty concentration
If you develop these symptoms after eating, you should schedule an appointment with your physician to check for possible diabetes or pre-diabetes.
You May Like: Medication For Sleep Apnea Fatigue
How Is Hypoglycemia Treated
The treatment of hypoglycemia depends upon its cause. If you’re otherwise healthy and you notice occasional hypoglycemia-like symptoms, try eating a diet that’s lower in simple sugars and/or try cutting down on your caffeine intake. If this doesn’t make the symptoms go away, be sure to talk with your doctor.
Silent Symptoms Of Diabetes
More than 30 million Americans have diabetes, including 7.2 million that are undiagnosed. Additionally, 1.5 million Americans are newly diagnosed each year. Type 2 diabetes accounts for 90 to 95 percent of all diabetes cases. Diabetes has plenty of early signs, but some symptoms are subtle. Here are 10 subtle signs of diabetes:
Also Check: Difference Between Chronic Fatigue And Idiopathic Hypersomnia
Prevalence And Impact Of Chronic Fatigue
A significantly higher percentage of T1DM patients were chronically fatigued than matched controls . Mean fatigue severity was also significantly higher in T1DM patients compared with matched controls . T1DM patients with a comorbidity_mr or clinically relevant depressive symptoms were significantly more often chronically fatigued than patients without a comorbidity_mr or without clinically relevant depressive symptoms . Patients who reported neuropathy, nephropathy, or cardiovascular disease as complications of diabetes were more often chronically fatigued .
Chronically fatigued T1DM patients were significantly more impaired compared with nonchronically fatigued T1DM patients on all aspects of daily functioning . Fatigue was the most troublesome symptom of the 34 assessed diabetes-related symptoms. The five most troublesome symptoms were overall sense of fatigue, lack of energy, increasing fatigue in the course of the day, fatigue in the morning when getting up, and sleepiness or drowsiness .
Does Diabetes Cause Extreme Fatigue
Symptoms: Chronic fatigue, feeling exhausted upon awakening, snoring
Sleep disorders are a group of conditions that disrupt or prevent restful, restorative sleep. That can take a toll on your health and quality of life, so its important to look out for signs and symptoms.
Continued
Sleep apnea is one of the most common sleep disorders. If you or your partner notices loud snoring and you wake up tired and stay that way, you could have sleep apnea. More than one-third of adults in the U.S. snore at least a few nights a week. But if the snoring stops your breathing for seconds at a time, it could be sleep apnea. Learn more about the best sleep positions and see if sleeping on your stomach is bad or not.
Obstructive sleep apnea causes low blood oxygen levels. Thats because blockages prevent air from getting to the lungs. The low oxygen levels also affect how well your heart and brain work. Sometimes, the only clue that you might have sleep apnea is chronic fatigue.
Your doctor may prescribe a medical device called CPAP that helps keep your airways open while you sleep. In severe cases of sleep apnea, surgery may help. The surgeon will remove tissues that are blocking the airways. If left untreated, sleep apnea can increase your risk of a stroke or heart attack.
But sleep apnea is just one of many sleep disorders that cause fatigue. Other common types include:
Continued
Also Check: What Is Adrenal Fatigue Caused By
How Can I Prevent From Feeling Tired All The Time
Preventing fatigue with diabetes is a pretty challenging thing to do. The first thing that needs to be done is a visit to see your physician to make sure that the causes of fatigue is not due to another issue. Other things that can be done are:
- Keep blood sugar levels in a normal range
- Make sure that you are getting enough sleep
- Take a power nap during the day if you are able
- Try to limit the stressors in your life
- Ask for help from others when its possible
Later in this article there is more information about how to reduce fatigue and regain energy. The main goal is to try to minimize complications from diabetes such as kidney disease and nerve damage because of the increase in the risk of fatigue that they bring.
The main goal is to regain a level of energy that allows you to function and manage your disease and your life. All people want a quality of life, and fatigue doesnt allow that to happen.
Prediabetes Weight Loss: Can It Help
If you have prediabetes, you are at risk of developing type 2 diabetes because prediabetes means that your blood sugar levels are higher than normal but not high enough to be classified as type 2 diabetes. Fortunately, prediabetes can often be treated with weight loss. In this article, we will explore the relationship between prediabetes and weight loss and find out if losing weight is an effective treatment for prediabetes. We will also cover all other treatment options available to you if you have prediabetes and what causes it.
Recommended Reading: Can Low Blood Sugar Cause Fatigue
Manage Your Blood Sugar Levels
Maintaining even blood sugar levels can be done by monitoring your blood sugar regularly, taking your medication as prescribed, and making lifestyle changes such as eating a healthy diet and exercising.
Also, make sure to manage any other complications that could be caused by diabetes such as heart disease.
Differences Between Participants And Nonparticipants
There was no significant difference on the mean scores on the SFQ between participants and nonparticipants completing questionnaires. Nonparticipants, including nonresponders, did not differ significantly from participants on sex . Participants and nonparticipants did differ significantly from each other on age and HbA1c. Participants were older , participants had lower HbA1c values , and their latest HbA1c was measured more recently compared with nonparticipants. The mean age of nonparticipants was 43.6 years, mean HbA1c values were 8.6 , and HbA1c was measured 8 months previously .
You May Like: Adhd And Fatigue In Adults
Tips To Help If You Are Experiencing Chronic Fatigue And Diabetes
Fatigue is a medical term for severe tiredness and exhaustion that does not go away with rest or sleep. It can be one of the symptoms of diabetes. When diabetes and exhaustion are treated as a whole, rather than as individual ailments, the results are the best. Healthy lifestyle habits, social support, and mental health programs can also improve diabetes and fatigue.
Food Allergies Food Intolerance And Fatigue
Symptoms: Fatigue, sleepiness, continued exhaustion
Although food is supposed to give you energy, medical research suggests that hidden food intolerances or allergies can do the opposite. In fact, fatigue may be an early warning sign of food intolerance or food allergy. Celiac disease, which happens when you cant digest gluten, may also cause fatigue.
Ask your doctor about the elimination diet. This is a diet in which you cut out certain foods linked to a variety of symptoms, including sleepiness within 10 to 30 minutes of eating them, for a certain period of time to see if that makes a difference. You can also talk to your doctor about a food allergy test or invest in a home test such as ALCAT which may help you identify the offending foods.
Recommended Reading: How To Stop Fatigue From Depression
You May Like: Psoriatic Arthritis And Extreme Fatigue
Why Does Diabetes Make You Tired
Whether it’s tiredness, sleepiness or lack of energy, many people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes often feel exhausted.
Diabetes can be accompanied by altered sleep patterns, weight loss, and can sometimes affect mental health, all of which negatively impact quality of life. It could be that waking up during the night because of nocturnal hypoglycaemia and the frequent need to urinate, drink, or eat may be responsible.
In addition, over the course of a day, a person with diabetes will experience fluctuation in their blood glucose levels. With these daily variations, phases of hypo or hyperglycaemia may appear, causing a wide range of symptoms. We refer to these as episodes of acute fatigue.
If the feeling of exhaustion persists for more than six months, it suggests chronic fatigue. This persistent lack of energy is linked to the degradation of certain functions connected to diabetes.
Small Symptoms Big Problems
It happens: you experience subtle or bizarre symptoms, like fatigue, tiredness or weakness. They seem harmless, so you move on with your day. These are just the signs of working hard in today’s fast-paced society, right?
Wrong.
While symptoms like fatigue, weakness or tiredness may be indicators of very minor issues, they can also be an alarm for something more serious, like high blood sugar, pre-diabetes or even diabetes.
You May Like: Diabetes Muscle Weakness And Fatigue
How To Deal With Diabetes Fatigue
Its no secret that regular exercise is key in managing and preventing several health-related conditions including type 2 diabetes. In fact, the American Diabetes Association recommends physical activity to all people living with diabetes to manage glycemic control and overall health.
In particular, the ADA urges people living with diabetes to interrupt long periods of sitting with light activity by doing 3 minutes of light exercise every 30 minutes.
While this recommendation tops the list of ways to manage and treat diabetes, exercising when youre experiencing diabetes fatigue is often easier said than done.
Fatigue is common among people with diabetes, which can make it difficult to work up the motivation and energy to stay physically active, explains Dr. Emily Schroeder, an endocrinologist with Kaiser Permanente in Denver.
However, exercise is a crucial part of diabetes management. Schroeder says its vital that patients come up with ways to integrate exercise into their daily routines.
Once you establish a routine, you can gradually increase that activity up to 30 minutes a day or more as your body becomes accustomed to it.
Also Check: Ways To Help Adrenal Fatigue
Fatigue And Other Signs You May Have Type 2 Diabetes
Home / Media Hub / Blog / Fatigue and Other Signs You May Have Type 2 Diabetes
Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes. It affects how your body processes insulin. Unlike type 1, which has a genetic component, type 2 diabetes can be brought by lifestyle choices. Type 2 diabetes symptoms vary from person to person.
There are many symptoms of type 2 diabetes. Constantly feeling tired is a common symptom, but here are additional signs of type 2 diabetes that you should monitor.
Fatigue/Tiredness
As mentioned previously, your energy levels may decrease once you develop type 2 diabetes. According to the American Diabetes Foundation, individuals newly diagnosed with type 2 report feeling fatigued. This fatigue is a result of inadequate amounts of sugar moving from the blood into the cells.
Blood sugar levels are always high when you have type 2 diabetes, but the sugar has a difficult time entering the cells. This causes the cells to work with less efficiency because they do not have the proper amount of energy. Because of this, a person with type 2 diabetes may feel tired all the time.
Excessive Thirstiness
People with type 2 diabetes often feel parched. This abnormal thirst is known as polydipsia and comes from too much sugar in your bloodstream. Your kidneys, a key part of the urinary system, are forced to work harder to rid your body of the extra sugar. This causes frequent urination, which is another early warning sign that you have type 2 diabetes.
Also Check: How To Get Rid Of Extreme Fatigue
What Are The Causes Of Type 2 Diabetes
Diabetes is a chronic disease characterized by increased blood sugar level. Diabetes is caused by either insufficient insulin secretion or resistance to that hormones action.
Insulin is produced by the pancreas and helps process the glucose in the blood. Thus, with inadequate insulin, the bodies cant burn all the blood sugar for energy in an efficient way. This means the glucose level in the blood rises, causing a variety of symptoms and when severe may even lead to death.
An estimated 9.4% of the population in the United States were affected by diabetes in 2017, according to the report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .
Factors that influence the development of type 2 diabetes include:
- Genetic factors
Most frequently, however, type 2 diabetes does not cause any symptoms for several years and may go unnoticed.
The Need For Studies On Fatigue In Diabetes
A recent review of diabetes randomized clinical trials revealed that only 18% of studies included measurement of patient-important outcomes, such as symptoms or health-related quality of life in their study designs 91. One study that did include such patient-important outcomes provided us with some of the most directly applicable findings on this subject to date. Skelly reported that symptom-focused education improved self-management practices and HbA1c levels. The subjects also had higher perceived quality of life and reduced symptom distress 92. Further studies such as this can only increase the much-needed understanding of fatigue in diabetes.
Also Check: Cbd Treatment For Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
When To See Your Healthcare Provider
It’s always a good idea to have regular follow-up care with your healthcare provider to discuss ongoing treatment and prevent complications. In some cases, fatigue may result from a more severe diabetes complication, such as diabetic ketoacidosis . DKA is a serious complication that can lead to excessively high blood sugar.
If you enter a state of DKA, sugar cannot enter your cells and provide energy, so your liver starts to break down stored fat to use for energy. This process releases a chemical called ketones into your body, and too much of this chemical, released too quickly, can cause symptoms such as:
- Increased thirst and urination
DKA can occur if you have diabetes and you’ve been sick or have missed doses of your diabetes medications it may require hospitalization. Talk to your healthcare provider if you notice changes in your overall condition or if you see high blood glucose readings at home.
If you have diabetes and become dizzy, light-headed, confused, or lose consciousness, you should seek immediate medical treatment.
Can Undiagnosed/uncontrolled Diabetes Cause Fatigue
Undiagnosed and uncontrolled diabetes can cause fatigue. Earlier in this article, reactive hypoglycemia was mentioned, which is when your body tries to make too much insulin to keep up with the sugar intake and causes a sugar crash. There are approximately 7 million people with undiagnosed diabetes in the world. Fatigue is the most common symptom of diabetes and hopefully leads to people seeing their doctors and being diagnosed to get control of their blood sugar.
Uncontrolled diabetes causes fatigue for many reasons that were also mentioned previously in this article. First of all, blood sugars that are either too high or too low do not deliver fuel to the cells for the body to operate. Secondly, complications that are caused by uncontrolled diabetes such as kidney disease and nerve damage also cause fatigue. The most important thing to do is to control blood sugar.
Also Check: Ovarian Fatigue And Weight Loss
