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What are the symptoms of Type 1 diabetes?

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The symptoms that usually occur when you first develop Type 1 diabetes are:

you are very thirsty a lot of the time.
you pass a lot of urine.
tiredness, weight loss, and feeling generally unwell.

The above symptoms tend to develop quite quickly, over a few days or weeks. After treatment is started the symptoms soon settle and go. However, without treatment, the blood glucose level becomes very high and acids form in the bloodstream ('ketosis'). If this persists you will become dehydrated, and are likely to lapse into a coma and die. (The reason you make a lot of urine and become thirsty is because glucose leaks into your urine which 'pulls out' extra water through the kidneys.)

How is diabetes diagnosed?

A simple 'dipstick' test can detect glucose in a sample of urine. If you have glucose in your urine, it is likely that you have diabetes. (Urine does not normally contain glucose. If the blood glucose level goes above a certain level, then some glucose 'spills' through the kidneys into the urine.)

However, some people have kidneys that are more 'leaky' than usual, and glucose may leak into urine with a normal blood level. Therefore, if your urine contains any glucose you should have a blood test. The blood test measures the blood level of glucose to confirm, or rule out, diabetes.

Is Type 1 diabetes inherited?

There is some genetic factor. A first degree relative (sister, brother, son, daughter) of someone with Type 1 diabetes has about a 6 in 100 chance of developing Type 1 diabetes. (This is higher than the chance of the general population which is about 1 in 250.) This is probably because certain people are more prone to develop auto-immune diseases such as diabetes, and this is due to their genetic make-up which is inherited.