Be aware and take action: Here’s a detailed look at prediabetes and type 2 diabetes during Diabetes Awareness Month.
Key points
• More than 1 in 3 American adults has prediabetes.• Prediabetes raises the risk of type 2 diabetes and other health problems.• Making lifestyle changes can cut your risk of type 2 diabetes in half.
What is prediabetes?
Prediabetes is a condition where blood sugar levels are higher than normal but not high enough yet to be diagnosed as type 2 diabetes. What’s more, nearly 90% percent of those people don’t know they have it. Having prediabetes greatly increases the chance of developing type 2 diabetes and other serious health conditions.
You can have prediabetes for years but have no clear symptoms. It often goes undetected until serious health problems such as type 2 diabetes show up. Talk to your doctor about getting your blood sugar tested if you have any risk factors for prediabetes, such as:
- 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)
- Giving birth to a baby who weighed more than 9 pounds
- Having polycystic ovary syndrome
Race and ethnicity are also a factor. African American, Hispanic/Latino American, American Indian, Alaska Native, Pacific Islander, and some Asian American people are at higher risk.
Get tested
You can get a simple blood sugar test to find out if you have prediabetes. Ask your doctor if you should be tested.
What causes prediabetes?
Insulin is a hormone 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. This sets the stage for prediabetes — and type 2 diabetes down the road.
Prevent type 2 diabetes
If you have prediabetes, you can lower your risk for developing type 2 diabetes by:• Losing a small amount of weight if you have overweight.• Getting regular physical activity.
A small amount of weight loss means around 5% to 7% of your body weight. That’s around 10 to 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 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week.
Managing diabetes
If you are diagnosed with diabetes there are some basic facts to consider and recommended actions.
Link between diabetes, heart disease and stroke
The risk for adults with diabetes of dying from heart disease or stroke is twice that of individuals without diabetes. The longer you have diabetes, the higher the chances that you will develop heart disease. Over time, the high blood glucose levels from diabetes can lead to damage to your blood vessels as well as the nerves that control your heart.
Lowering my chances of a heart attack or stroke if I’m diabetic
Taking care of your diabetes is important to help you take care of your heart. You can lower your chances of having a heart attack or stroke by taking the following steps to manage your diabetes to keep your heart and blood vessels healthy.
Manage your diabetes ABCs
Knowing and understanding your diabetes ABCs will help you manage your blood glucose, blood pressure, and cholesterol. Stopping smoking if you have diabetes is also important to lower your chances for heart disease.
A is for the A1C test. The A1C test provides your average blood glucose level over the past 3 months. This is different from the blood glucose checks that you do every day. The higher your A1C number, the higher your blood glucose levels have been during the past 3 months. High levels of blood glucose can harm your heart, blood vessels, kidneys, feet, and eyes.
The A1C goal for many people with diabetes is below 7 percent. Some people may do better with a slightly higher A1C goal. Consult your qualified health specialist on what your goal should be.
B is for blood pressure. Blood pressure is the force of your blood against the wall of your blood vessels. If your blood pressure gets too high, it makes your heart work too hard. High blood pressure can cause a heart attack or stroke and damage your kidneys and eyes.
The blood pressure goal for most people with diabetes is below 140/90 mm Hg. Ask what your goal should be.
C is for cholesterol. You have two kinds of cholesterol in your blood: LDL and HDL. LDL or “bad” cholesterol can build up and clog your blood vessels. Too much bad cholesterol can cause a heart attack or stroke. HDL or “good” cholesterol helps remove the “bad” cholesterol from your blood vessels.S is for stop smoking. Not smoking is especially important for people with diabetes because both smoking and diabetes narrow blood vessels, so your heart has to work harder.
Develop or maintain healthy lifestyle habits
Developing or maintaining healthy lifestyle habits can help you manage your diabetes and prevent heart disease.
• Follow your healthy eating plan.• Make physical activity part of your routine.• Stay at or get to a healthy weight• Get enough sleep.
Managing stress levels
Managing diabetes is not always easy. Feeling stressed, sad, or angry is common when you are living with diabetes. You may know what to do to stay healthy but may have trouble sticking with your plan over time.
Long-term stress can raise your blood glucose and blood pressure, but you can learn ways to lower your stress. Try deep breathing, gardening, taking a walk, doing yoga, meditating, doing a hobby, or listening to your favorite music. Look into other healthy ways to cope with stress.
Take medicine to protect your heart
Medicines may be an important part of your treatment plan. Your doctor will prescribe medicine based on your specific needs. Medicine may help you:
- meet your A1C (blood glucose), blood pressure, and cholesterol goals.
- reduce your risk of blood clots, heart attack, or stroke.
- treat angina or chest pain that is often a symptom of heart disease. (Angina can also be an early symptom of a heart attack.)
By becoming more knowledgeable about prediabetes and diabetes one has the ability to address the prevention and/or management of this chronic disease. Science-based knowledge that is acted upon gives us a step up.
Resources/additional information
Consult the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Diabetes Translation Center for information on how to prevent or delay diabetes health problems and other related information at cdc.gov.
Check out a recent CDC online summary: Nearly a third of U.S. teens have prediabetes, CDC says | STAT
Mark A. Mahoney, Ph.D. has been a Registered Dietitian/Nutritionist for almost 40 years and completed graduate studies in Nutrition & Public Health at Columbia University. He can be reached at marqos69@hotmail.com.