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Symptoms of a Diabetic Coma

Diabetic comas are comas (states of unconsciousness) that are induced by the disease diabetes. Diabetic comas are severe and potentially life threatening. Diabetes is a condition of having extremely high blood sugar (hyperglycemia) or extremely low blood sugar (hypoglycemia), and you can fall into a diabetic coma. When someone is in a diabetic coma, he is still technically alive but cannot respond to sights or sounds, or even wake up. If not treated properly, this can be fatal. There are various symptoms of diabetic comas.

  1. Function

    • Diabetic comas are never random. Before a person with high blood sugar (hyperglycemia) falls into a diabetic coma, she will generally experience common symptoms such as having a dry mouth, being nauseous, vomiting, having shortness of breath, having to urinate very frequently and being very thirsty.

    Theories/Speculation

    • Those with excessively low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) will experience an entirely different set of warning symptoms before lapsing into a diabetic coma: sweating excessively, feeling intense hunger, being very irritable, anxiety, shakiness and tremors, confusion and irritability.

    Prevention/Solution

    • There are some very early symptoms that could lead to diabetic comas occurring if they are left untreated. Watching out for the following symptoms can potentially prevent a diabetic coma: restlessness, headaches, paralysis, being unable to properly speak, drowsiness, weakness and an altered medical state.

    Considerations

    • If you are diabetic and notice any of these symptoms, you should immediately test your blood sugar and call your health care provider if you notice that your blood glucose level is too high or too low. Treatment at this point would involve having intravenous fluid injections and possibly insulin.

    Warning

    • When a person with hypoglycemia becomes unconscious due to a diabetic coma (this can happen between 20 minutes and an hour after initial early diabetic coma symptoms are experienced), he might also start convulsing or twitching. He will be drenched in sweat and have a very fast heartbeat.

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