Nov 9, 20214 min read

Pre-Diabetes: Path to Diabetes?

Are you suffering from excessive thirst, sleep disorder, obesity, high cholesterol levels, or high BP? Also, have you recently been experiencing blurred vision, unusual smelling urine, or slow healing of wounds?

If the answer to these questions is yes, and you feel a certain decline in your quality of life. For your curious conscience, this article could be the right source to help you tackle your worries. Also, it will help you improve your knowledge about the status of your condition. But why is it important? This will eventually help you overcome negative thoughts about yourself and thus will elevate a major proportion of your quality of life.

What is Pre-Diabetes

As the name suggests, pre-diabetes is a condition before diabetes develops. It refers to the elevation in your blood glucose level from the normal range but not as high enough to be considered as Type II Diabetes. But if your lifestyle lags, pre-diabetes can lead to diabetes. It’s always better to remain on the safer side of the disease spectrum. Considering the data available, pre-diabetes is the most common problem worldwide. Approximately 1 out of 3 people in America i.e., 88 million American adults are suffering from pre-diabetes. (A)

Risk Factors for Pre-Diabetes: Who is more prone to develop Pre-Diabetes?

As you could have concluded by now, pre-diabetes is not an actual disease. But a condition that is reversible to a certain extent via appropriate medication or diet alteration. Let’s help you identify those groups of the population, who are at higher risk of developing pre-diabetes than others or the list of people who need to be extra cautious.

Obesity
Age above 45 years or older
Family History: Have parents, siblings, or close relatives with Type II diabetes
Eating a lot of red and processed meat, and drinking sugary beverages.
Have high cholesterol diet
Don’t exercise
Sleep disorders patients
Tobacco Smokers

What causes Pre-Diabetes?

Insulin is a hormone that is secreted by the pancreas, which acts as a carrier to take blood sugar into the cells. So, that cells could utilize this sugar to make energy or store them for later usage. You can read more about insulin in Influence of Insulin & Glucagon and Insulin Resistance & Diabetes. But if your pancreas is unable to meet the demands of the body as it should. Then your blood sugar level begins to rise especially after diet intake and eventually take you to the pre-diabetes status.

Sign and Symptoms of Pre-Diabetes

You may not experience any symptoms of pre-diabetes, until serious health care problems such as type II diabetes may occur. If you have any risk factors which have been cited above. Then you must consider visiting a doctor and getting the required tests done.

But some people may experience dark skin on the side of the neck, increased thirst, excess hunger, blurred vision, frequent urination, lethargy, weight gain around the abdomen.

Diagnosis: How do the doctors confirm your pre-diabetic status?

Till now you are aware of the risk factors, signs, and symptoms of pre-diabetes. Now you must be wondering what to do with this knowledge?

"The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend."

So, the simple answer to the question posed above is simply comprehending this knowledge to seek the early addressing of issues if it develops. Let’s shift our focus to how the diagnosis of pre-diabetes is done.

Several tests that help diagnose pre-diabetes are as follows:

HbA1c

It refers to glycosylated hemoglobin A1c, the test measures the average level of plasma glucose concentration over the past three months. When blood glucose levels are high, glucose molecules attach to the hemoglobin in red blood cells. The longer hyperglycemia occurs in blood, the more glucose binds to hemoglobin in the red blood cells and the higher the glycated hemoglobin. As the lifespan of RBC is 120 days. It gives a good enough measure of your compliance for the past three months. (B)

The pre-diabetic level according to American Diabetes Association is between 5.7% and 6.4%. (C)

Fasting blood glucose level

In this test, your blood sugar level would be measured in the morning before breakfast or empty stomach. (fasting of around 8 hours is recommended) The pre-diabetic levels range between 100-125mg/dl. (C)

Oral glucose tolerance test

This test measures how high blood sugar level is at fixed time intervals after consuming a high sugar solution. Pre-diabetes level is between 140-199mg/dl (C)

Prevention and Treatment

As reiterated above many times that prediabetes is not a disease but a transitory period from normal to a diabetes condition. Then it should be reversed? if yes! Then how can we reverse it? what is the procedure you can actively take to counter Pre - Diabetes?

Let's have look at the prevention & treatment section of pre-diabetes.

The best way to prevent and treat pre-diabetes is by healthy diet modification & exercise.

Diet: In general, having a low carbohydrate and nutrition-rich diet helps you to heal your metabolism and recover your elevated blood glucose levels. You should avoid eating a lot of processed food and prefer eating fruits in their raw form.
Exercising: Get at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic physical activity a week, or about 30 minutes on most days of the week (D).
Say No to Smoke: Smoking is directly linked to diabetes. People who smoke, have 30% to 40% more chances to develop prediabetes, subsequently diabetes. Smoking can lead to developing some complications such as heart disease, and blindness. So the sooner you ditch the cigarettes, the better it is.
Medication: Lifestyle modification always works however, sometimes patients have to take some medications to lower the chances of diabetes. You might have seen some doctors prescribe Metformin which is an antidiabetic drug. If you are taking metformin, you'll need to go for regular follow up to your doctor.

Again the above mentioned are just some general suggestions. Your body is definitely unique and what is working for others may not work with the same efficiency for you as well. You need to understand your body and its responses to diet and exercise modification well and then take the right set of actions personalized just for you.

Yes, pre-diabetes is treatable. But as we all know prevention is better than cure. If you observe any early signs of pre-diabetes, then you should change your daily routine. Go for a balanced diet, Do regular exercise and stay fit.

The good news is that early diagnosis and a healthy diet are very effective in the prevention of diabetes. That’s all folks!!

References

Content Credits

Devesh Joshi

Author

Ankita Chaudhary

Editor

DietOsure