To People With Diabetes: Be Warned of Cancer Signs and Symptoms!

As in any illness, cancer can be non-threatening if treated earlier. For the people with diabetes who are said to have increase risk of developing cancer, knowing specific cancer signs and symptoms can play an important role of preventing further illness like cancer.

For people with diabetes, their healthier lifestyle change can cut the risk of developing cancer. However, they have to keep an eye on cancer signs and symptoms even if the connection of diabetes and cancer is not clearly defined yet, the first thing to do is to avoid diabetes, or curing it. Then cancer can also be avoided.

The presence of diabetes doubly increases the risk of cancer in the liver, bladder, pancreas, breast and colorectal. This is most common especially for older age, poor diet, obesity and lack of physical activity.

Likewise, inflammation, too high insulin and high sugar levels commonly occurring in diabetes can also be cancer contributing factors.

Presence of cancer

There are a variety of signs that cancer already occurs in the body. For those people who have diabetes, seeing cancer signs and symptoms in their bodies can be an additional alarming issue. Cancer depends mostly on where it is located, spread and how big the tumor is. Some signs and symptoms are shown through the skin such as a lump on the breast or testicle and change in mole or wart.

Cancer is many diseases, not just one. There are various different cancer types, about more than 100. They are named after the organ being attacked, or after the type of cell where it started. Examples are colon cancer, lung cancer and skin cancer.

Types and categories

Types of cancer are grouped into categories. For people who have diabetes, cancer can be one of its complications. Cancer signs and symptoms likely appear where they are located. Cancer main categories are: sarcoma – when cancer begins in the fat, muscle, bone, blood vessels, cartilage and other supportive or connective tissue; carcinoma – when cancer begins in skin or in tissues which cover or line the internal organs. Thus symptoms likely appear in the skin.

Lymphoma and myeloma – when it begins in the immune system; leukemia – when it begins in blood-forming tissue like the bone marrow and central nervous system – when it begins in the tissues of the spinal cord or the brain.

When and where symptoms are found

Oral cancers can be shown through white spots in the tongue or white patches inside the mouth, a very disgusting occurrence for people who have diabetes already. Many cancer signs and symptoms are less apparent but can be felt. Brain tumors can be early detected because they affect cognitive functions that are important.

Pancreas cancers which can likely be linked with diabetes, do not show much signs and are detected late until they can cause pain when they push against nearby nerves or they interfere with a liver function, causing the skin and eyes to be colored yellow.

Since cancer interferes with the body’s normal hormone function, it is possible that it can also be presented with fatigue, fever, anemia, excessive sweating and unexplained weight loss. Hoarseness, coughing and short of breath can point to throat or lung cancer. For people with diabetes, brain cancer is not so connected. Brain cancer signs and symptoms can be headaches, vertigo or seizures. With cancer, the liver can be enlarged, causing bones to be painful, brittle and easily break.

What we can do

No matter what studies reveal, the best thing to do is to try our best to decrease our risk of diabetes and cancer. Eat healthy food, especially plant-based, maintain an ideal body weight and be physically active everyday.