The term pre-diabetes has been
adopted by the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and the National Institute
of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
Before developing type 2 diabetes,
people go through a stage in which blood sugar levels are higher than normal
but less than the levels to be classified as diabetes. Nearly 20 million people
in the United States are affected by this condition.
According to the current criteria,
you will be diagnosed with this condition if your blood sugar values in a lab
test are:
Fasting blood sugar ranging from 100
to 125 mg/dL, (5.6 to 6.9 mmol/L), a condition also called impaired fasting
plasma glucose.
or
Blood sugar, ranging from 140 to
less than 200 mg/dL (7.8 to 11.1 mmol/L) in a glucose tolerance test (2 hours
after taking glucose mixed in water). This condition is also called impaired
glucose tolerance.
A peculiar feature of this condition
is that although you may not be aware, your heart and blood vessels are
silently undergoing some long-term damage in this stage. People who are at
increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes (noted earlier in this chapter)
should be screened for this.
A timely detection of this
condition, followed by simple lifestyle changes, can prevent it from developing
into full-fledged diabetes and halt the damage it has been causing to the body.
Pre
Diabetes –The Pre Cursor
|
Before
people develop Type 2 Diabetes, they almost always have
"pre-diabetes" -- blood glucose levels that are higher than normal
but not yet high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes. There are 54 million
people in the United States who have pre-diabetes and most don't even know
it. Recent research has shown that some long-term damage to the body,
especially the heart and circulatory system, may already be occurring during
pre-diabetes.
Research has also shown that if you take action to manage your blood glucose when you have pre-diabetes, you can delay or prevent Type 2 Diabetes from ever developing. People with pre-diabetes can expect to benefit from much of the same advice for good nutrition and physical activity. If you take action in time you may forestall the onset of diabetes or eliminate it all together. There are two different tests your doctor can use to determine whether you have pre-diabetes: the fasting plasma glucose test (FPG) or the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). The blood glucose levels measured after these tests determine whether you have a normal metabolism, or whether you have pre-diabetes or diabetes. If your blood glucose level is abnormal following the FPG, you have impaired fasting glucose (IFG); if your blood glucose level is abnormal following the OGTT, you have impaired glucose tolerance (IGT).
If your FPG
is below 100 you are normal; if you are in the 100-125 range you are pre
diabetic; and if you are above 126 you are diabetic. A high score may
indicate that you have pre-diabetes or at risk for pre-diabetes. Take the
test and find out for sure.
Pre-diabetes is a serious medical condition that can be treated by making changes in their diet and increasing their level of physical activity. You may even be able to return their blood glucose levels to the normal range. A recent study showed that some medications may delay the development of diabetes- diet and exercise worked better. Just 30 minutes a day of moderate physical activity, coupled with a 5-10% reduction in body weight, produced a 58% reduction in diabetes. |
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