What Exactly Is Prediabetes?

By Yetunde Sannoh, MD

Prediabetes is a serious health condition where blood sugar levels are higher than normal, but not high enough yet to be diagnosed as type 2 diabetes. Approximately 84 million American adults – more than one out of three – have prediabetes. Of those with prediabetes, 90% don’t know they have it. Prediabetes puts you at increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.

The good news is that if you have prediabetes, the CDC-led National Diabetes Prevention Program can help you make lifestyle changes to prevent or delay type 2 diabetes and other serious health problems.

Causes

Insulin is a hormone made by your pancreas that acts like a key to let blood sugar into cells for use as energy. If you have prediabetes, the cells in your body don’t respond normally to insulin. Your pancreas makes more insulin to try to get cells to respond. Eventually your pancreas can’t keep up, and your blood sugar rises, setting the stage for prediabetes – and type 2 diabetes down the road.

Symptoms and Risk Factors

You can have prediabetes for years but have no clear symptoms, so it often goes undetected until serious health problems such as type 2 diabetes show up. It’s important to talk to your doctor about getting your blood sugar tested if you have any of the risk factors for prediabetes, which include:

• Being overweight

• Being 45 years or older

• Having a parent, brother, or sister with type 2 diabetes

• Being physically active less than 3 times a week

• Ever having gestational diabetes (diabetes during pregnancy) or giving birth to a baby who weighed more than nine pounds

• Having polycystic ovary syndrome

• Race and ethnicity are also a factor: African Americans, Hispanic/Latino Americans, American Indians, Pacific Islanders, and some Asian Americans are at higher risk.

Getting Tested

You can get a simple blood sugar test to find out if you have prediabetes. Ask your doctor if you should be tested.

Preventing Type 2 Diabetes

If you have prediabetes, losing a small amount of weight if you’re overweight and getting regular physical activity can lower your risk for developing type 2 diabetes. A small amount of weight loss means around 5-7% of your body weight, just 10-14 pounds for a 200-pound person. Regular physical activity means getting at least 150 minutes a week of brisk walking or a similar activity. That’s just 30 minutes a day, five days a week.

The best time to prevent type 2 diabetes is now.

Information obtained from https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/basics/prediabetes.html