However, there's a much less well-known symptom that may seem on the skin.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, diabetes-related dermopathy is a possible complication of each sort 1 and kind 2 diabetes.

The patches generally seem on the shin, though could be discovered on any a part of the physique. And they are often pink, pink or brown in color.

The clinic explains: “Diabetes-related dermopathy (often called ‘shin spots’) is a fairly common skin condition that affects people who are living with diabetes, including type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes.

“Diabetes-related dermopathy looks like small, round pink, reddish or brown patches on your skin. They can look like scars and be indented.

“They’re generally one centimetre to 2.5 centimetres in size. The patches are harmless and don’t itch, ooze liquid or cause pain.”

Other distinguishing options of the patches embody being:

• Round or oval
• Slightly indented into your pores and skin and/or considerably scaly
• Bilateral, that means they seem on the pores and skin of each of your legs or each of your arms on the similar time.

The patches can seem for months at a time and in keeping with the American Diabetes Association they're usually “mistaken” for age spots.

It is just not identified precisely what causes diabetes-related dermopathy, nonetheless, researchers consider it could possibly be brought on by prior trauma to the pores and skin.

This could possibly be attributable to an harm or excessive warmth of chilly, particularly in folks with neuropathy - a kind of nerve injury that’s brought on by continual excessive blood sugar.

It can be extra frequent amongst older folks and people who have had diabetes for a very long time.

A paper, printed within the British Journal of Diabetes and Vascular Disease in 2014, detailed the way it happens in as much as 55 p.c of sufferers with diabetes.

“Diabetic dermopathy is a term used to describe the small, round, brown atrophic skin lesions that occur on the shins of patients with diabetes,” it says.

“The lesions are asymptomatic and occur in up to 55 percent of patients with diabetes, but incidence varies between different reports.”

Other signs of diabetes embody:

• Feeling very thirsty
• Urinating extra often than traditional, notably at evening
• Feeling very drained
• Weight loss and lack of muscle bulk
• Itching across the penis or vagina, or frequent episodes of thrush
• Blurred imaginative and prescient.

If you expertise any of the signs of diabetes you need to communicate to your GP.