Diabetic dermopathy Diabetes can cause changes in the small blood vessels. These changes can cause skin problems called diabetic dermopathy. Dermopathy often looks like light brown, scaly patches. These patches may be oval or circular. Some people mistake them for age spots.
Diabetic dermopathy
This condition is also known as shin spots, and it's harmless. The spots look like red or brown round patches or lines in the skin and are common in people with diabetes. They appear on the front of your legs (your shins) and are often confused with age spots. The spots don't hurt, itch, or open up.
Darker area of skin that feels like velvet
A dark patch (or band) of velvety skin on the back of your neck, armpit, groin, or elsewhere could mean that you have too much insulin in your blood. This is often a sign of prediabetes. The medical name for this skin condition is acanthosis nigricans.
Acanthosis Nigricans
This condition is common in people with diabetes. Your skin usually darkens and thickens, and it might feel velvety. It could itch and smell, too. The back of the neck, groin, folds of elbows, knees, knuckles, and armpits are common spots.
Also commonly referred to as shin spots, diabetic dermopathy develops as a result of changes to the blood vessels that supply the skin with blood and oxygen. Dermopathy typically appears as shiny, round, or oval lesions of thin skin that are light brown or red, often on the front of the legs.
On average, diabetes-related dermopathy patches tend to fade after one to two years, but they can remain on your skin for longer. Better blood sugar management doesn't seem to have an effect on how diabetes-related dermopathy progresses once you already have it. After specific spots fade, new spots can appear.
These rash-causing conditions can also be a warning sign of pre-diabetes: Acanthosis nigricans (AN): This condition causes dark, velvet-looking bands of discolored skin. It commonly affects people who have overweight/obesity. Acanthosis nigricans can be a warning sign of high blood sugar or prediabetes.
Often, the cause of diabetes-related itching is diabetic polyneuropathy or peripheral neuropathy. These are complications of diabetes that develop when high blood glucose levels cause damage to nerve fibers, particularly those in the feet and hands.
Symptoms of uncontrolled diabetes include extreme fatigue, frequent urination, excessive thirst or hunger, unintended weight loss, and blurred vision.
The three most common symptoms of undiagnosed diabetes include increased thirst, increased urination, and increased hunger. Diabetes is a metabolic disorder that happens when blood sugar (glucose) is too high (hyperglycemia).
feeling or being sick. abdominal (tummy) pain. rapid, deep breathing. signs of dehydration, such as a headache, dry skin and a weak, rapid heartbeat.
What does diabetes itching feel like? If you have diabetes, itching can be intense. It's an irritating feeling that makes it hard not to scratch, but scratching can make the itch worse. You can itch anywhere, but if you have nerve damage (neuropathy) associated with diabetes, your lower legs may itch.
Tingling, burning, or pain in your feet. Loss of sense of touch or ability to feel heat or cold very well. A change in the shape of your feet over time. Loss of hair on your toes, feet, and lower legs.
If you have diabetes and are regularly getting genital itching, it could be a sign that your blood glucose levels are too high. Your health team may be able to advise whether this is the case and, if so, how to bring your blood glucose levels under better control.
Fasting blood sugar test
In general: Less than 100 mg/dL (5.6 mmol/L ) is normal. 100 to 125 mg/dL (5.6 to 6.9 mmol/L ) is diagnosed as prediabetes. 126 mg/dL (7.0 mmol/L ) or higher on two separate tests is diagnosed as diabetes.
Dry skin: Your body loses moisture at night, which can make your skin itchy. Hormonal changes: At night, your body doesn't produce as many hormones as it does during the day and certain hormones reduce inflammation (swelling). As you have fewer hormones at night, your skin could be itchy.
Circadian rhythm
In the evening, the body releases more heat, and blood flow to the skin increases, which may contribute to nighttime itching. In addition, skin loses water at night, resulting in dryness that can make you itchy.
Fatigue is a common symptom of diabetes that is not limited to uncontrolled diabetes. Persons may complain of fatigue along with a variety of symptoms, which may together herald comorbid psychological, medical, metabolic or endocrine, and acute or chronic complications.
Less-Common Conditions. Necrobiosis lipoidica: If you've had diabetes for a long time without good control of your blood sugar, you could develop this condition. Poor blood supply to the skin can cause changes in the collagen and fat underneath. The overlaying skin becomes thin and red.
In people with diabetes, insufficient insulin prevents the body from getting glucose from the blood into the body's cells to use as energy. When this occurs, the body starts burning fat and muscle for energy, causing a reduction in overall body weight.