Should You Get a Diabetes Blood Test?

Diabetes was a bit under the radar for a while, but people are finally starting to take notice of this not-so-easy-to-live-with disease. Put simply, diabetes is a disorder of the blood in which a person's body is unable to push glucose through its system. If the glucose builds up, other organs in the body will suffer, leading to a whole new set of potential problems. The information below reviews who should get tested for this increasingly common disease, as well as a few reasons why you may want to get tested as soon as possible.

Who Should Get a Diabetes Blood Test?

Diabetes can affect anybody at any time. Even though some people are more at risk of getting diabetes because of family history or poor overall health, the truth is that even the most unsuspecting person can get diabetes. Diabetes blood testing is not necessary for everyone, but there are some people who are strongly advised to get the testing done. The combination of several different factors makes some individuals far more likely to get diabetes than others. But who exactly are those people, and are you one of them? Let's take a look…

If you notice that you are unnaturally fatigued all the time, you may want to get tested. If glucose isn't moving properly through your body, then you don't have enough fuel going through to keep yourself going. No fuel means no energy, leading to you being more tired than you should be. Monitor your feelings throughout the day and make sure that if you are getting the proper levels of sleep that you have the expected amount of energy.

A sudden drop in weight could also indicate diabetes. If the body isn't processing food properly, as is the case with diabetes, then the result will be unexpected weight loss. Overweight people should be particularly aware of this because they are more likely to have diabetes in the first place. Monitor your weight frequently and watch for uncommon fluctuations.

As a whole, men are usually more likely to have diabetes than women. Caucasians are also more likely to be diabetic than minorities are, and the older a person gets, the greater the chance that they have diabetes. There isn't a lot of explanations for these occurrences, but it is something to be aware of. Therefore, if you are an older white male, you should probably undergo diabetes blood testing no matter what.

If you are to get tested and find out that you have diabetes, you should notify your family so they can get tested too. Though diabetes isn't contagious, it can be hereditary. One person in the family could be an indicator of many more. Just keep everyone informed so that they can have a decent heads up beforehand. If they get tested at the first signs, they will have less risk of organ issues related to untreated diabetes.

Reasons to Get Tested

There are a variety of diabetes blood tests available for every stage of the diagnosis. Most of these are fairly cheap to go through, so you won't have to waste a lot of your medical assistant salary on testing. Finger-prick tests measure blood sugars on a daily basis, while random blood sugar tests, glucose tolerance tests and glycated hemoglobin tests take readings on a less frequent basis. Each test tells a different aspect of the diabetes reading, and all of them will eventually be performed on a person with diabetes. Why should someone get a diabetes blood test, and what makes it so important? Let's find out about that as well…

The most obvious benefit to diabetes testing is that the tests will provide a diagnosis that a person can respond to. It's hard to treat a disorder if a person doesn't know he/she has it in the first place. This also gives the family of the patient an indication that they could have a hereditary form of diabetes, giving everyone a jump start on their own diagnosis. The sooner people know about their situation, the sooner they can seek treatment.

The at home tests provide fast results that allow a person to immediately react to their bodies need. Unlike a lot of other blood tests, diabetes blood tests can mostly be performed without a medical doctor present, eliminating the need to go back and forth to the hospital. What few tests are done in the presence of a doctor produce highly accurate results that can easily be acted on. Doctors are able to quickly diagnose a problem and provide a solution.

Learning about the possibility of diabetes through a diabetes blood test can help a person make the proper dietary and lifestyle changes to improve his or her overall health condition. Even the slightest level of diabetes should be responded to in order to prevent further problems in the future. Getting tested is the first step to getting a better life, and there is no way to receive treatment for an issue that hasn't been diagnosed. If you suspect that you may have diabetes or have had risks of such a problem in the family, do yourself a favor and get tested.