There are often no symptoms at all for the first years of the disease so most people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes have had it for a while. Typical symptoms in the later stages of the disease can be -

You might feel tired more often than you used to before. Both physically and mentally. You might also be more susceptible to candida (yeast) infections and start to urinate more (larger volumes).

The reason you will start to urinate more is that sugar (glucose) will leak over to the urine when it reaches a certain level in your body, it will then attract water from the body and the amount of urin will increase.

Overweight is a common problem amongst type 2 diabetics so you might notice that it gets harder to hold your weight.

Overweight, high blood pressure and abnormal blood fat levels are symptoms of what is called "Metabolic syndrome". As a result, your body will be less able to use sugar as energy and there will be an increase in the production of sugars in the liver, mainly during the night.

Diabetes will normally worsen slightly with increased age. Sometimes it can be difficult to tell the difference between type 2 diabetes and type 1 from the symptoms. In these circumstances it can be very useful to measure the level of markers for the immune defence in the pancreas. A C-peptide is such a marker.

Type 2 diabetes is the most common of the types. About 85% of all diabetics are diagnosed type 2. Diabetes is getting more common and one reason is increasing weight (i.e. a general increase in BMI - body mass index) due to lack of exercise and maybe an office job.

Smoking can contribute to the risk of getting type 2 diabetes because of the reduced blood circulation which in turn decreases the amount of glucose (energy) to the cells.

For the other type of diabetes: Symptoms of type 1 diabetes here.