Pre Diabetes – What Is it?

Pre diabetes means exactly what it says. It means that unless you make life style changes you are on your way to becoming a type 2 diabetic. Just as there is a difference between type 1 and type 2 diabetes, there is a difference between diabetes and pre diabetes.  With type 2 diabetes you normally don’t have all the symptoms that a person with type 1 diabetes, so how is it discovered. If you get a physical from your doctor and they include a fasting blood glucose test or if you are hospitalized for some other illness and they check your blood sugar. Because of the fact that you are not experiencing the classic symptoms, you could be pre diabetic or even type 2 diabetic for sometime before it is discovered.
 
To insure your health that annual physical is important. Another way to show the importance of testing is what some health insurance do. We all know that illness and hospital stays are expensive for you and me and also for your insurance company, so it only stands to reason that want to keep you healthy also. My insurance company reimburses me whenever I have a annual physical. On top of that they also reimburse for having my blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol checked a second time during the year. So you know if they are willing to reimburse me it makes sense to have it done to stay healthy.
 

 

Pre Diabetes and Diabetes Can Go Undetected For Years.

 
Because type 2 diabetes can go undetected for years, its recommended that starting at the age of forty five and older that you are screened for diabetes every three years. You should get tested even earlier if you have any of these risk factors, obesity, family members who have had it or gestational diabetes while pregnant. You are also at greater risk if you are African American,Hispanic, Native American and Asian. Additional factors to consider are testing overweight children or children with high cholesterol by age ten.
 

Pre Diabetes – Diabetes Testing

 
There are many types of screening tests, but the most common and least expensive is fasting glucose test. You are told to fast overnight for ten to twelve hours and then a blood sample is taken to measure the amount of glucose that remains in your blood. 70 – 99 mg/dL is consider normal. 100 – 125 mg/mL is considered pre diabetes. Any reading over 126 mg/dL and over (taken on two seperate occasions) is considered diabetic.
 
Another test that can shed a lot of light if you have been tested diabetic or pre diabetic is the hemoglobin A 1c test. This test measure the glycation levels in your bloodstream over the past three to four months. Reading of four to six per cent are usually consider normal and above can spell issues. If you are diabetic or pre diabetic you will want to get test test repeatedly throughout the year to keep an eye on its findings.
 
So you’ve had your annual physical and the results of your tests show that you are pre diabetic or even diabetic. Now what? Should you just give up and think oh well, I guess I’m diabetic and there’s nothing that can be done about that. Not on your life. There is plenty you can do and plenty that you must do. Stay tuned as we explore the world of diabetes.  Future articles will go into detail on how to deal with pre diabetes or type 2 diabetes.