Have you ever been working out, maybe doing some yard work, or just moving around, and you notice a lingering and oddly pungent odor? Nope, me neither. But let’s all be adults for a moment, get past the giggles and fart jokes, and focus.
I suspected and recently confirmed that a thick, unpleasantly sweet odor, one which seemed to be present only after exercising or otherwise exerting myself, is a symptom of diabetes.
If you notice that your body chemistry is smelling out of the ordinary and unusually strong, please talk with your doctor about diabetes. I wish I had.
My story began six years ago. After working out one day, I got a faint whiff of a noxious odor. Not having eaten beans the night before, I ruled out the most common culprit. The smell lingered, remaining on my periphery until showering later. Weeks passed with similar outcomes. Searching the internet, I learned that an increase in body odor can occur if the amount of body fat drops to a level where muscle mass is consumed as a fat substitute in one’s body. This made sense as I’d been working out regularly and hard for eight months. I’d lost 50 pounds and had become quite strong. Hence, I believed this new pungency was caused by a low level of fat. Happily, I gave the issue no further thought.
Move ahead to the present, and having been diagnosed with diabetes, I attacked working out as a survival necessity. I had stopped exercising a while ago, but that irritating stench kept showing up — it had become stronger and more pungent and appeared every time I sweat.
Quite the dashing image, eh? Well, I’m not some Shrek-like, roving ogre. Rather, I remain expectedly clean and pleasant smelling. Yet, that stupid odor kept popping up every time I’d sweat.
Hadn’t been diagnosed with diabetes at the time, discussions with my doctor, urologist, and dermatologist produced nothing more than a suggestion for a type of prescribed body wipes designed to reduce sweat’s output. In five years of asking, that’s the best remedy I received.
After my diabetes diagnosis, and smelling ever stronger after sweating, I modified my web searches that tied diabetes to an increase in unpleasant body odor.
The very first search result listed diabetes as the primary source of such an increase and change in body odor. This means that if I or my doctors had thought about the odor linkage to diabetes, I might have avoided the disease at its onset — at a time when dietary changes and consistent workouts might have eliminated diabetes from my life. Instead, I kept eating the same junk as always and exercised sporadically.
I happened upon a YouTube video, the name of which escapes me, that told of a woman who can smell Parkinson’s Disease. That was my trigger. It wasn’t long before I learned that an increase in body odor is likely a symptom of diabetes.
I am looking forward to discussing my epiphany during my upcoming doctors’ appointments. Perhaps my G.P., urologist, and dermatologist can absorb my findings while removing their heads from their butts.
This is the second significantly major event in my life that went unnoticed by professionals. In the case of diabetes, I discussed my odor issue with five different doctors who represent four different medical disciplines, and none of them diagnosed my concern -- even when compounded with an upward-creeping blood-glucose level.
The second occurrence of a missed opportunity happened during my only court appearance. When I was 19, I rammed my car into the side of another. I never saw it. An overly cautious driver, even as a teen, I was proud of my driving record.
As I stood before the traffic-court judge, I could barely stammer my replies to his accusations of laziness and stupidity. I did look in both directions and, believing I was clear, dashed for the turn lane. I’m still astonished that I never saw the other equally massive station wagon passing right before me.
The judge wasn’t lenient nor forgiving. I paid the maximum fine and attended traffic school. If the judge had ordered me to get a thorough eye exam by an ophthalmologist, I would have been diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa five years earlier than I was. Instead, he dismissed my story and objections as the whining of a teen, I would have been saved a number of near-misses and anxious moments behind the wheel.
I understand that our highly trained and experienced professionals are merely human and that they can’t be expected to catch everything, but such indicative symptoms of two significant diseases, it seems, should have provided such professionals the insight needed to get me properly diagnosed, treated, and educated.
Ultimately, both occurrences were my own fault. In both cases, however, earlier diagnoses could have provided me with much different outcomes. If I’d only been made aware that an unusual odor’s relationship with diabetes five years ago. I was already experiencing diabetic problems.
To my horror, research taught me that diabetes can further damage my remaining eyesight. Diabetes can cause deformities of the blood vessels that support the retina. Already frail and barely responsive, it would only take a few diabetes-damaged blood vessels in my eyes to turn my shades-of-gray world totally and irreparably black. thankfully, scans of my retina show that diabetes has not yet affected such blood vessels.
My warning to you, then, is to ask and keep asking your doctors and other professionals. Do your own research if you begin feeling something is amiss about you. Don’t dismiss symptoms with casual indifference as I did. Perseverance may save your life. In my case, I now wonder what impacts the last five years of ignorance and lethargy might have on my remaining years.
Has a missed diagnosis affected you later in life? If so, what did you do and how did you react? Please share your story in the comments section below.
Have a nice day.
~RJ
Tags:
Diabetes, Retinitis Pigmentosa, retina, RP, early diagnosis stench odor, exercise, sweat, smell, glucose, sugar, self-preservation, judge, doctor, pRn, nurse, blood, vessel, capillaries, capillary, disease, fundus
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