Polydipsia (medical term for excessive thirst) can be a sign of diabetes if chronic.
The excess blood sugar eventually gets excreted into the urine by the kidney, leading to the term Diabetes mellitus (or "sweet urine" in ancient times).
The glucose in the urine that's not naturally there creates an osmotic effect drawing free water out of the bloodstream and body tissues, which will lead to a decreased effective circulating volume and dehydration over time if it's chronic and unaddressed.
But polydipsia (excessive thirst) and polyuria (increased urinary frequency) are more pathognomic of a young, skinny young person with Type 1 Diabetes (autoimmune disease with beta cell destruction in the pancreas leading to a near complete endogenous insulin deficiency) vs Type 2 Diabetes which is the metabolic syndrome, fatass, late presenting version.
The Type 2 version can also present with excessive thirst and urination, but it's much less likely because the natural history of the disease is a slower decomposition with different features (deceased insulin sensitivity vs complete insulin insufficiency, etc.). In general, Type 2 diabetics are less symptomatic to insanely high blood glucose levels because the process happened more slowly and their system has compensated.
Type 1 skinny young autoimmune undiagnosed diabetics OTOH is really an emergency requiring carefully monitored exogenous insulin supplementation ASAP along with monitoring and management of other deranged parameters (blood sugar, fluid volume, serum potassium, etc).
A thirsty undiagnosed T1 diabetic will eventually go into a diabetic ketoacidosis coma without insulin as their body compensates by using ketones and poisoning its own blood. This is because insulin is the hormone "key" needed to unlock each cell's "lock" to transport fuel into each cell to be consumed. A young skinny T1 diabetic is in a paradoxical situation of an insulin deficiency where all their cells in the body are starving for lack of "keys" to open "locks" while their serum itself is syrupy thick with excessive glucose causing havoc that can't be used.
A thirsty undiagnosed T2 diabetic is really just a fat guy who should give up the soda.
Polydipsia (medical term for excessive thirst) can be a sign of diabetes if chronic.
The excess blood sugar eventually gets excreted into the urine by the kidney, leading to the term Diabetes mellitus (or "sweet urine" in ancient times).
The glucose in the urine that's not naturally there creates an osmotic effect drawing free water out of the bloodstream and body tissues, which will lead to a decreased effective circulating volume and dehydration over time if it's chronic and unaddressed.
But polydipsia (excessive thirst) and polyuria (increased urinary frequency) are more pathognomic of a young, skinny young person with Type 1 Diabetes (autoimmune disease with beta cell destruction in the pancreas leading to a near complete endogenous insulin deficiency) vs Type 2 Diabetes which is the metabolic syndrome, fatass, late presenting version.
The Type 2 version can also present with excessive thirst and urination, but it's much less likely because the natural history of the disease is a slower decomposition with different features (deceased insulin sensitivity vs complete insulin insufficiency, etc.). In general, Type 2 diabetics are less symptomatic to insanely high blood glucose levels because the process happened more slowly and their system has compensated.
Type 1 skinny young autoimmune undiagnosed diabetics OTOH is really an emergency requiring carefully monitored exogenous insulin supplementation ASAP along with monitoring and management of other deranged parameters (blood sugar, fluid volume, serum potassium, etc).
A thirsty undiagnosed T1 diabetic will eventually go into a diabetic ketoacidosis coma without insulin as their body compensates by using ketones and poisoning its own blood. This is because insulin is the hormone "key" needed to unlock each cell's "lock" to transport fuel into each cell to be consumed. A young skinny T1 diabetic is in a paradoxical situation of an insulin deficiency where all their cells in the body are starving for lack of "keys" to open "locks" while their serum itself is syrupy thick with excessive glucose causing havoc that can't be used.
A thirsty undiagnosed T2 diabetic is really just a fat guy who should give up the soda.