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Before developing Type 2 diabetes, most people live with a condition called “prediabetes,” often for an extended period of time. Prediabetes means that blood-sugar levels are too high to be measured as healthy, but they’re not yet high enough to be considered diabetes.
Prediabetes is extremely common in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than one in three American adults has prediabetes—that’s 96 million people!—yet most who are affected don’t even know it.
Sandy Summers is a Family Nurse Practitioner at Prowers Medical Center. She has a special interest in diabetes care, and during National Diabetes Awareness Month, she wants the community to know that prediabetes is a time of opportunity to lower blood-sugar levels, prevent Type 2 diabetes and restore health.
First, Know Your Risk Factors
The most concerning prediabetes risk factors Summers sees are carrying too much weight and genetic predisposition. If you have a parent or sibling with Type 2 diabetes, you’re especially at risk.
Other risk factors include age (45 and up), lack of physical activity and a history of gestational diabetes. Race and ethnicity also come into play. African Americans, Hispanic Americans, American Indians, Pacific Islanders and some Asian Americans are more at risk.
Even children can develop prediabetes, however. “I recommend screening children who are overweight and/or who have symptoms such as blurry vision, frequent urination, increased thirst or fatigue,” Summers said.
Next, Know Your Numbers
What is your fasting blood-glucose level? If it’s in the 100 to 125 mg/DL range, that’s prediabetes.
It’s Flu Shot Time!
The CDC recommends that with rare exceptions, everyone 6 months and older should receive an influenza vaccination every year.
The flu vaccine protects against serious illness, hospitalization and death.
If you get your shot now, you’ll be protected all winter long.
Flu vaccines are available on a walk-in basis. To schedule appointments for COVID and RSV vaccines, please call 719-336-6767.
Flu vaccines are available on a walk-in basis. To schedule appointments for COVID and RSV vaccines, please call 719-336-6767.
What is your A1C? If it’s in the 5.7 to 6.4% range, that’s prediabetes.
Simple blood tests will provide these measurements.
“People often think they don’t need their glucose levels tested because they can tell when their blood sugar is high,” Summers said. “Or they say that their A1C has always been high, but they feel fine. Yet the truth is that 80% of people with prediabetes don’t know they have it, and prediabetes is a serious condition.”
Prediabetes itself raises your risk of heart attack and stroke. And for those who do go on to develop Type 2 diabetes, the health repercussions are significant. “People with diabetes often develop heart disease, chronic kidney disease, retinopathy, peripheral neuropathy and depression,” Summers said. “There is also an increased financial burden.”
Finally, Take Action
The CDC urges Americans to think of prediabetes as a time to preventdiabetes.
Summers said that patients can typically lower their blood-sugar levels below the prediabetes range with increased activity levels, decreased carbohydrate intake and weight loss. Simply walking for 20 minutes a day, eating fewer refined carbs and losing a few pounds can do the trick.
“In most cases, prediabetes is reversible,” Summers said. “Patients who work to normalize their blood-sugar levels can often eliminate the long-term, disabling effects of diabetes.”
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