Every single part of your body can hold subtle clues about your health. And while you might be reluctant to check the toilet bowl after you just went, even your urine could be hiding important signs.
An endocrine specialist, known on TikTok as The Voice of Diabetes, warned that the smell of your urine could be a red flag sign of diabetes.
Speaking on her channel, she said: “Your urine can tell you a lot about your health. It can actually tell you that you may have certain diseases and not even know about it.
“It can mean you have diabetes and not even know it.”
When you have too much sugar circulating in your blood, the body starts to compensate by trying to get rid of it.
The excess sugar is secreted into urine and more water is drawn out of the body, prompting you to pee more frequently and in larger amounts.
And the sugar taken out of your blood can result in a sweet-smelling odour, the doctor explained.
However, fruity-smelling urine could also be a red flag sign of a medical emergency linked to diabetes.
The endocrine specialist said: “It may mean that you can be in diabetic ketoacidosis, which is a medical emergency and requires professional help.
“What happens with this is that our body starts to break down fat because there’s no glucose going into the cells due to the lack of insulin.”
This leads to chemicals called ketones being released.
Worryingly, ketones can build up and make your blood become acidic, Diabetes UK warns.
“So, if you have a sweet-smelling urine, please let your doctor know because they may need to do some testing to find out what’s going on,” the doctor added.
Apart from the changes in the smell of your urine, there are some key diabetes symptoms worth knowing, including:
- Feeling very thirsty
- Peeing more frequently than usual (especially at night)
- Feeling very tired
- Weight loss and loss of muscle bulk
- Itching around the penis or vagina, or frequent episodes of thrush
- Blurred vision.
The NHS recommends to visit your GP “as soon as possible” if you experience the main symptoms of diabetes.
The health service explains that type 1 diabetes can develop quickly over weeks or even days, while many people live with type 2 diabetes for years without realising because the early symptoms tend to be general.
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