Prevent Prediabetes From Progressing to Diabetes

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 1 in 3 American adults have prediabetes. Of those who have it, more than 80% don’t know they are prediabetic. Understanding how diabetes affects the body and recognizing the risk factors for developing diabetes is important for an early diagnosis. If you have prediabetes, you may be able to prevent or delay its progression to type 2 diabetes with proper management.

How Diabetes Affects Our Bodies

Chuck Riepenhoff, RPh, CDE, BCACP, ProMedica Jobst Medication Therapy Management, explains that diabetes causes a breakdown in the way our body distributes sugar, which is needed for energy.

“Our pancreas makes insulin. Insulin is responsible for helping our body get sugar out of the blood and get to where it needs to go in the body so it can turn into energy for us,” says Riepenhoff.

With diabetes, however, sugar is not distributed as it should be from the blood to the muscles, tissues and cells. Instead, it builds up in the blood, which can create issues in the body.

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that has a very sudden onset where the pancreas simply cannot produce enough insulin on its own. Type 2 diabetes, however, typically takes longer to develop.

Uncontrolled diabetes of either kind can lead to complications such as kidney disease, an increased risk of heart events such as stroke or heart attack, and can even cause permanent damage to the eyes. That’s one reason why early diagnosis and intervention is key.

Testing for Diabetes

Prediabetes occurs when your blood sugar is high, but not high enough to be considered type 2 diabetes. Over time, insulin resistance may lead to insulin deficiency, or lack of insulin from your pancreas. When this happens, prediabetes progresses to actual type 2 diabetes. 

If you have a family history of diabetes or if you are a middle-aged adult and possibly overweight and not active, make sure to stay connected with your doctor on at least a yearly basis,” says Riepenhoff. “Your doctor can screen you for diabetes and other related disease states such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol.”

Testing for diabetes begins with a simple blood draw to check your fasting blood sugar. Fasting blood sugar means you have not eaten or had anything except for water for eight hours before your test. Preventive screenings such as this blood test often do not require payment by the patient. Ask your insurance company if your test will cost you anything out of pocket.

Understanding Diabetes Screenings

Normal fasting blood sugar is less than 100. A fasting blood sugar from 100 to 125 may be considered prediabetes. If your fasting blood sugar is over 100, it’s possible that your doctor will want to look deeper and check your A1C levels to see if you have prediabetes or diabetes.

A1C is the key marker for diagnosing diabetes and for monitoring progress in someone who has already been diagnosed with diabetes. If your A1C level is between 5.7 and 6.4, this would be considered prediabetes. Through healthy eating and routine exercise, you may be able to reduce your risk of this progressing to actual diabetes.

Recognizing Risk Factors

People at risk for prediabetes and diabetes carry the following risk factors:

• Age 35 and older.
• Overweight.
• Family history of diabetes.
• Physical inactivity.
• History of cardiovascular disease, hypertension or hyperlipidemia.
• Previous history of gestational diabetes.

If you have any of these risk factors, you should talk with your primary care provider so that proper monitoring can be done. Even if you aren’t experiencing symptoms, it’s important to see your primary care provider each year to discuss your risk and preventive screenings.