Type 2 Diabetes Tests - Dr Karthik Explains | MedX

Watch Dr Karthik from Medlife discuss Type 2 Diabetes Tests.

Type 2 diabetes is the most common type of diabetes. It is nothing but the condition in which the blood sugar is just too high leading to other health issues. In Type 2 diabetes, your body does not make or use insulin properly.

If you are at risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes, there are mainly 5 types of blood tests that your doctor would diagnose you with. A single blood test cannot give details on whether you are diabetic because there are other factors, such as medications, illness, or stress, that may cause fluctuation in the blood sugar level. For this reason, doctors always go for more than one test.

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Let us take a look at these tests one by one.

Fasting blood sugar is one of the most common tests that a doctor suggests. In this test, you are expected to fast overnight. In the morning, your doctor will draw your blood to check the blood sugar level.

Two-hour postprandial test Is the test done post 2 hours after your meal.

Random blood sugar is a test we take at random intervals irrespective of the time of your food intake.

Hemoglobin A1C test will measure the amount of glucose stuck to the hemoglobin (or glycated hemoglobin) found in your blood. The life span of these proteins is 3 months. So, this test will help you detect the duration of the diabetic condition.

Oral glucose tolerance test is one of the tests that a doctor would use to diagnose diabetes during pregnancy. A pregnant woman is at a greater risk of developing diabetes and it is called gestational diabetes.

Diabetics tend to develop another condition called Diabetic nephropathy. This condition mainly harms your kidney. To diagnose this condition, your doctor may order a variety of tests, including,

Blood tests which mainly detects how well your kidney is working. Urine tests, to see if your urine contains too much protein called microalbumin. High content indicates that your kidney is affected.

Diabetic neuropathy is another deadly condition that a diabetic patient may eventually develop. Here diabetes starts damaging your nerves leading to numbness and pain in the leg and hands, and problems with your digestive system, urinary tract, blood vessels and heart.

To diagnose this, your doctor will first conduct a physical exam feel overall muscle strength, tendon reflexes, sensitivity to touch and vibration.

With time, Type 2 diabetic patient will also develop macrovascular health conditions that may result in coronary artery disease, peripheral arterial disease, and stroke. This is caused by narrowing down of the arteries or simply called atherosclerosis.

The symptoms may be leg pain, chest pain, confusion and paralysis. Your doctor may diagnose these health conditions by understanding the contributing factors like your smoking habits, high serum cholesterol, obesity, or high blood pressure.

There is another test that your doctor may suggest you take, which is HOMA beta test. This test will see if there are enough beta cells in pancreatic islets to secrete insulin. If the doctor does not detect enough cells, then he will direct you to take tablets and insulin shots.