What is prediabetes ?
Prediabetes is a warning sign saying “Watch out, diabetes is just ahead. You might heat it soon”.
It is that yellow zone where your blood sugar levels are beginning to get out of hands, heading towards diabetes.
Without intervention, you may develop type 2 diabetes in 10 years or less. That might seem like a long time but imagine where you were ten years ago or how old your kids will be in ten years.
Diabetes shouldn’t be your agenda. Moreover the long-term damage of diabetes, especially to your heart and circulatory system, may already begin in this phase and increase your risk for stroke and heart attack.
The good news is, prediabetes can be reversed through lifestyle changes.
Prediabetes can be an opportunity for you to improve your health. With healthy lifestyle changes, such as eating healthy foods (more vegetables, less sugar and lower cholesterol), including 30minutes of physical activity in your daily routine and maintaining a healthy weight, you may be able to bring your blood sugar level back to normal.
Know Your Numbers
By definition prediabetes is when fasting blood sugar is between 100mg/dl and 125mg/dl and oral glucose tolerance test values are between 140mg/dl to 199mg/dl.
(Fasting sugar is usually measured in the morning, after 8 hours of not eating anything except water. Oral glucose tolerance test, OGTT, is a two-hour test that checks your blood glucose levels before and 2 hours after you drink a special sweet drink)
ASK YOUR DOCTOR
Prediabetes doesn’t typically show signs so ask your doctor about blood glucose screening if you have any risk factors for prediabetes, such as:
- Overweight, with a body mass index above 25. calculate your body-mass-index here
- You live an inactive life without sports
- You’re 45 yrs or older
- You have a family history of type 2 diabetes
- You developed gestational diabetes when you were pregnant or gave birth to a baby who weighed more than 9 pounds (4.1 kilograms)
- You have polycystic ovary syndrome — a condition characterized by irregular menstrual periods, excess hair growth and obesity
- You have high blood pressure
- Your cholesterol level is higher than 200md/dl
