Prediabetes is a warning sign for diabetes. Your blood sugar levels are higher than normal but your general physician still cannot diagnose type 2 diabetes. It’s important to know that prediabetes is an alarm that your pancreas cannot take more sugar load. You can either stop this or the body will give up! Prediabetes can be controlled otherwise this will control your body if not taken care of. The normal fasting sugar is 100 mg/ml and prediabetic sugar levels are between 100 -120 mg/ml. More than this, your diabetologist can diagnose type 2 diabetes. Prevention is better than cure. Move ahead to know the details of prediabetes.
What causes prediabetes?
Keeping this simple, prediabetes has many causes. All of them play a key role in causing prediabetes. It’s important to identify and understand the causes of prediabetes to reach the right treatment and avoid diabetes. Here is the list of causes of prediabetes.
Family history
Does the history of prediabetes run in your family? If it’s a yes, then consult your general physician immediately to seek a proper treatment. Insulin is a hormone which is produced by pancreas and binds to the receptors to control the blood sugar levels. Any mutation or change in any of the above could lead to prediabetes.
Weight
It’s tough to curb down the intake of favourite food items. But it’s important that this will reduce the risk of prediabetes otherwise it will become a devil leading to other complications and diabetes. It has a simple correlation, the more fat you have, the more the insulin will become resistant.
Age
This a physiological situation, it has been observed that people above 45 yrs are more prone to prediabetes.
Inactivity
Lack of exercise will lead to internal fat deposition, making insulin more difficult to act on the blood sugar. Prediabetes in this can lead to diabetes easily.
Diet
Meat, sugar and packed foods will induce diabetes and other complications. The risk of diabetes increases as soon as you take a shift from a healthy diet.
Gestational diabetes
If you had diabetes during your pregnancy, there is a high chance that you can develop prediabetes. Even your child can develop prediabetes. So it’s important to consult your general physician to find preventive measures.
Prediabetes symptoms
There are multiple symptoms of prediabetes like darkening of skin which includes groin, neck and armpits. The darkening of skin can be observed easily. If you see any of the symptoms then consult your general physician as there is a possibility that there is a shift from prediabetes to diabetes.
Urination is frequent
This condition is also known as polyuria. This is the first sign of diabetes. Your sugar levels are increased and thus this increases the workload on the kidneys. This leads to polyuria.
Frequent thirst
Also known as polydipsia. This is due to excessive urination. The removal of water from the kidneys can result in thirst. Excessive thirst is a sign of diabetes.
Increased hunger
Since your body cannot utilise the glucose levels in the body because of insulin. This leads to lack of energy leading to more food intake. Increased hunger is an important sign of diabetes.
Blurred vision
Major and severe symptoms of diabetic. Blurred vision is due to excessive sugar.
Numbness and tingling in feet
Diabetes affects your nervous system as well, especially your peripheral nerves. Numbness can and tingling in feet can be caused due to this.
Unintended Weight loss
Due to lack of nutrition and less sugar utilisation can lead to weight loss. This weight loss is not healthy.
The complications of prediabetes can be fatal for life!
This includes sudden heart attacks and hypertension. As we all know very well that a person can die immediately after a sudden heart attack.
Diabetic retinopathy is a disorder of the eyes. A person suffers from a complete loss of vision.
Diabetic ketoacidosis is another complication due to lack of utilisation of sugars. The fat is used as a source of energy which leads to an acidic environment by producing ketones.
Fatty liver due increase in LDL levels cause metabolic problems in the body.
High cholesterol and blood pressure is due to high LDL levels and low HDL levels.
The complications of prediabetes can hamper your living once it is changed to type 2 diabetes. Consult your diabetologist for the same.
Prediabetes vs Diabetes
Prediabetes is a pre condition that will lead to diabetes. The major difference between diabetes and prediabetes is blood sugar levels. The prediabetes blood sugar levels are generally below 140mg /dl but the moment it goes beyond this, your general physician may diagnose you with type 2 diabetes. One major good news is that prediabetes is a reversible condition but diabetes is a lifelong disease. Prediabetes cannot cause heart attack or hypertension whereas the patient of diabetes suffers from these complications.
It’s important to note that prediabetes is a red flag that the body shows to control lifestyle and prevent diabetes.
Prediabetes diagnosis
It’s simple to diagnose prediabetes as a normal blood sample can tell about the sugar levels. These days general physician advice 3 blood tests to check blood sugar levels.
AIC blood sugar test
This test indicates the sugar levels for the past 2-3 months. This is the most reliable test to show exact levels of blood sugar. Many patients may use some unethical ways so that the test is negative but glycated haemoglobin test helps in preventing any kind of malpractice. The normal range is 5.7% whereas anything between 5.7% and 6.4% is prediabetes. Above this is considered to be diabetes.
Fasting blood sugar test
As the name describes that this is tested after fasting, 8 to 10 hrs of fasting is a must. General physician would explain to you the method of testing which includes overnight fasting, no beverages, smoking and any kind of drugs.
The normal range is from 100 to 125 mg/ml whereas prediabetes is 125 mg/ml and beyond this is diabetes. This test is done for immediate results. The only hurdle is that the procedure should be followed in the correct manner. Online consultation with a general physician can detect the right blood sugar levels.
Oral glucose test
This test is done during pregnancy. For this test the patient has to visit the clinic in the early morning, empty stomach. Sugar is given orally to the patient and after every two hours the blood sugar levels are noted.
The normal range for this test is slightly high. Less than 140 mg/dl is normal whereas below 199 is considered as prediabetes. Beyond this value the patient is diabetic.
How long does it take to reverse
prediabetes?
It depends on many factors such as family history, lifestyle or any other underlying disease. Consult your general physician for the same.
In most of the cases patients with prediabetes develop diabetes after 10 years. Now this is a huge gap! If you follow the right routine, it will probably take 3 years to reverse the disorder.
Prevention is important!
- Regular exercise
- Low sugar diet
- Yoga
- Low fat diet
The good thing is once prediabetes is gone, it will never come back. It’s a permanent reversal and no risk of diabetes.
