Tired, thirsty and always need the loo?

Tired, thirsty and always need the loo?

YOU could be one of the hundreds of thousands of people with undiagnosed diabetes.

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Hundreds of thousands of people have no idea they are suffering from diabetes, worrying new figures show.

The vast majority of people are unable to identify the main signs of the disease, including weight loss, slow healing of cuts and bruises, blurred vision, being thirsty, using the bathroom more often and being tired.

In fact, only one in 100 people could identify the main symptoms and only one in five would be able to spot a single one, according to a survey to coincide with World Diabetes Day tomorrow.

In 2014 the World Health Organisation estimated that 9 per cent of adults around the world suffer from the disease.

It said 1.5 million deaths worldwide were directly caused by diabetes in 2012.

In the UK, 3.9 million people are diagnosed with diabetes each year, whilst an estimated 590,000 are unaware that they have the disease.This is estimated to rise to five million by 2025.

Globally, there were an estimated 370 million people with diabetes in 2012 - and nearly 5 million deaths due to diabetes and diabetes-related illnesses, World Health Organisation figures show.

It's estimated that around 90 per cent suffer the type 2 form of the disease. In Type 2 diabetes, the pancreas does not produce enough insulin to keep glucose levels normal. In Type 1, the pancreas stops producing insulin altogether.

A number of lifestyle factors, including weight, are known to increase a person's risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.


But according to the new survey, by law firm Stephensons, more than 80 per cent of people would fail to spot weight loss as a sign of diabetes, despite this being listed by the NHS as one of the main symptoms.

In fact, one in three would wrongly identify weight gain as a symptom, due to increased awareness of the link between obesity and diabetes.

Excessive thirst is the most recognised symptom, with around half of men and two thirds of women being able to spot it.