Diabetes Screening

Diabetes is the fastest growing disease in the UK and lifestyle choices are contributing to the development of this very dangerous and life limiting condition.

Contributory factors to developing diabetes include a lack of exercise, high alcohol intake, saturated fatty diet, high intake of processed sugars and increase in weight to higher than acceptable and recommended range. Leading a healthy lifestyle and maintaining a healthy weight will reduce the risk of developing diabetes or delay the onset of the condition. It is important to make yourself aware of the symptoms and visit your GP if you get them. Symptoms of diabetes can include extreme thirst, urinating more than normal, pear drop-smelling breath and extreme, unexplained tiredness.

As well as a blood test, it is important to check your urine sample for the presentation of glucose. Sugar (glucose) is usually present in the urine at very low levels or not at all. Abnormally high amounts of sugar in the urine, known as glycosuria, are usually the result of high blood sugar levels. High blood sugar usually occurs in diabetes, especially when untreated.

Normally, when blood is filtered in the kidneys, some sugar remains in the fluid that will later become urine. If the level of blood sugar is low, as is normally the case, the body can reabsorb the sugar from this fluid before it leaves the kidney to be excreted as urine. When the blood sugar is high, there is too much sugar in the blood leaving the kidneys struggling to reabsorb the sugar, so some sugar passes into the urine.

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