Prediabetes is a condition in which people have glucose levels that are higher than normal, but not high enough to indicate diabetes. The number of prediabetic people is increasing worldwide, and usually, the glucose levels in such people start rising 7 to 10 years before the clinical diagnosis of diabetes.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that about 79 million people in the U.S. over the age of 20 are prediabetic.
How To Know If You’re Prediabetic – A Quick Checklist
Based on the following factors, you can determine if you’re prediabetic – a key revelation that will help you work towards bettering your health and lifestyle.
- Family History: If one of your parents or siblings has diabetes, there are chances that you might be prediabetic.
- High Cholesterol: If the cholesterol level in your body is high, your chances of being affected by diabetes can rise significantly. High levels of LDL and VLDL (bad cholesterol), or low levels of HDL (good cholesterol) can indicate a high chance of you being prediabetic.
- Sedentary Lifestyle: If you follow a sedentary lifestyle without much exercise, you have a strong risk of developing prediabetes.
- Obesity: When your body mass index is greater than 25, there will be a subsequent decrease in the peripheral utilization of insulin, which might lead to diabetes at a later stage.
- High Risk Ethnic Group: People who belong to Aboriginal, South Asian, Asian, African, or Hispanic backgrounds face an elevated risk of being prediabetic.
- Age: People who are older than 45 years of age are often diagnosed with prediabetes. At this age, it is advisable to get health checkups done at regular intervals, in order to detect such problems.
- History of Gestational Diabetes: Women who face diabetes during pregnancy (also called gestational diabetes) can often experience prediabetic symptoms. Mainly, if the weight of the newly born infant is greater than 9 lb (4 kg), the chances of prediabetes in the mother is very high.
- High Blood Pressure: A systolic blood pressure that’s greater than 140 mmHg or diastolic blood pressure that’s greater than 90 mmHg might indicate an elevated risk of diabetes.
- Classic Diabetes Symptoms: The primary symptoms of diabetes, including increased hunger and thirst, loss of appetite, and a weak immune system, can together indicate the presence of prediabetes in an individual.
Tests To Check If You’re Prediabetic
The following tests are carried out in order to determine if an individual is prediabetic.
Fasting Plasma Glucose [FPG] Test: A fasting glucose level between 100 and 125 mg/dL indicates Impaired Fasting Glucose (IFG). This indicates a definite risk of prediabetes.
Two-Hour Oral Glucose Tolerance Test [OGTT]: This test is run after the individual is made to ingest a standardized 75 gm glucose solution. If the blood sugar level lies between 140 and 199 mg/dL, prediabetes can be confirmed.
Glycated Hemoglobin Level: The American Diabetes Association’s current guidelines promote the evaluation of Glycated Hemoglobin as a vital part of prediabetes diagnosis. A value of 5.7 to 6.4% suggests that the individual is prediabetic. If the value crosses the cut-off point of 6.5%, the individual can be classified as diabetic.
Prediabetes should not be ignored as the condition may lead to diabetes in the future. It signals the likely onset of a more serious problem, so if you’re prediabetic, you should take the hint and work towards maintaining and improving your health.