9. You may find it difficult to concentrate and remember things
Memory loss, confusion, and difficulty concentrating can be related to several conditions. These include depression, stress, alcohol abuse, Alzheimer’s disease, side effects of medications, or an underactive thyroid gland. However, they are also associated with high blood sugar levels that have been untreated for some time.
The symptoms of memory loss include forgetting close friends and family members’ names or where things in your home are. You could forget something significant that happened to you, or you’ll forget something you’ve recently done. You might walk into a room and not remember why you went there in the first place.
Confusion symptoms include not being sure where you are and how you got there, or not being able to make choices or decisions. You may find yourself in the shop unable to choose what to eat for dinner. Difficulty concentrating includes symptoms like ‘drifting off’ in the middle of a task, or inability to focus on any one thing. Sometimes you find yourself starting the same task again because you weren’t concentrating when you began.
Your memory, clarity of thought, and ability to concentrate are functions that your brain controls. The parts of the brain that control these functions may be affected by prolonged high blood sugar levels. Your body is struggling to produce energy because it cannot absorb the glucose in the bloodstream. This lack of energy production affects different parts of the body. The brain is no exception. In an effort to keep other parts of the brain and body functioning, some parts may be deprived of energy. If the parts of your brain that control memory and concentration do not receive enough energy, they cannot function optimally.