Symptoms of diabetes in the elderly

Written by Zhou Yan
Geriatrics
Updated on April 20, 2025
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Elderly diabetes often begins inconspicuously, lacking the typical symptoms of excessive thirst, urination, hunger, and weight loss. It can present with various complications such as diarrhea, constipation, urinary retention, limb numbness, skin itching, and shoulder joint pain. Elderly diabetics often have concurrent infections, particularly in the respiratory and urinary systems, as well as cholecystitis and skin infections. They may also suffer from ketoacidosis, hyperosmolar hyperglycemia syndrome, and coexist with multiple chronic diseases of old age such as heart failure, coronary heart disease, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia. They require different types of medications and are susceptible to hypoglycemia, making timely diagnosis and treatment challenging. These are the symptoms of diabetes in the elderly.

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Early symptoms of type 2 diabetes

The typical symptoms of type 2 diabetes are referred to as "three excesses and one deficiency." The three excesses include excessive thirst and dry mouth, increased appetite with frequent hunger, and increased urination. The one deficiency refers to weight loss; these are the more typical symptoms. Some patients might often find out about their elevated blood sugar during routine health checks at work. Others may seek medical advice due to issues like skin itchiness or wounds that heal poorly after injury. Some might mainly experience numbness in their hands and feet, or blurred vision among other symptoms.

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Written by Zhou Yan
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How to treat diabetes in the elderly?

For elderly patients with diabetes, our long-term treatment goal is to delay the onset and progression of chronic diabetic complications, maintain good health and self-care ability, improve quality of life, and extend healthy lifespan through good metabolic control. The short-term goal is to control hyperglycemia and its metabolic disorders, eliminate the symptoms of diabetes, and prevent acute severe metabolic disorders. Our "five-pronged" approach to diabetes management is also suitable for elderly patients, including diabetes education, medical nutrition therapy, exercise therapy, blood glucose monitoring, and medication therapy. Therefore, for elderly diabetic patients, it is essential to keep blood glucose levels within a controllable range, delay the onset of complications, and provide a healthy twilight years for elderly diabetics.

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Written by Lin Xiang Dong
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Can diabetics drink alcohol?

It is not recommended for diabetes patients to drink alcohol, as alcohol consumption can lead to digestive enzyme disorders, causing problems with the blood sugar regulation mechanism in patients, significantly increasing blood sugar fluctuations. This can lead to severe hypoglycemia or severe hyperglycemia, severely affecting the patient's condition. Therefore, it is advised that diabetes patients should avoid alcohol, and it is best to quit drinking altogether.

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incidence of gestational diabetes

Gestational diabetes refers to diabetes that appears or is diagnosed during pregnancy, or any degree of glucose tolerance abnormality, which is classified as an independent type of diabetes. Diabetes combined with pregnancy or gestational diabetes can pose serious risks to the health of both mother and child. Before national screening of blood sugar levels during pregnancy was initiated, the detection rate of gestational diabetes was not very high, only 0.24%. However, with the widespread implementation of blood sugar screening during pregnancy, the current incidence rate of gestational diabetes is approximately 1% to 5%.

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Urology
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Is frequent urination diabetes?

If the urine output exceeds 2500 mL in 24 hours, this condition is called polyuria. There are many causes of polyuria; diabetes is just one of them. Additionally, physiological causes are also seen, such as eating a large amount of fruits that have a diuretic effect, like watermelon, or drinking a lot of water previously. This is referred to as physiological polyuria and does not require special treatment. Pathological causes, apart from diabetes, also include diabetes insipidus or electrolyte disturbances. For instance, long-term hypokalemia, hypercalcemia, or increased aldosterone can all lead to polyuria. It is advisable to promptly visit the urology department of a hospital for tests such as blood glucose levels, routine urine tests, and endocrine examinations to understand the causes of polyuria, and to determine whether it is caused by diabetes.