Prediabetes

What is Prediabetes?

Prediabetes is a health condition where a person’s blood sugar is higher than the normal level, but not high enough to be diagnosed as type 2 diabetes. Having prediabetes may put you at a higher risk for developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and strokes later in life. However, prediabetes can be prevented!

What Causes Prediabetes?

Insulin is produced by an organ called the pancreas. Insulin helps blood sugar go into your cells to use for energy. With diabetes, your cells either don’t respond well or at all to the insulin. Since your cells aren’t responding normally to the insulin, the pancreas makes more insulin to make up for it. Soon, the pancreas can’t keep up the extra work of producing extra and your blood sugar will rise. High blood sugar can be damaging to the body. If not managed, it may lead to type 2 diabetes later. Also, it may lead to other serious health concerns like heart disease, vision loss, kidney disease, and nerve damage.

Prevention of Prediabetes

It is important to prevent prediabetes because it is the first warning sign that you might get type two diabetes.

Prediabetes is preventable! Managing prediabetes requires lifestyle changes, but it is worth it to better your health. To prevent prediabetes follow suggestions below:

Eat healthy foods
Get more physical activity
Lose weight if you are overweight
Stop smoking if you do and don’t start smoking if you haven’t started
Take medications prescribed by doctors regularly
Regularly monitor blood sugar, cholesterol, and blood pressure
Drink more water
Manage stress

Manage Prediabetes

Prediabetes is a health condition that is managed by you to prevent it from developing to type two diabetes! At first it may be a challenge to make lifestyle adjustments, but it is very important to your health. If you do not manage prediabetes or try to prevent it, you could develop type two diabetes which can cause other issues like vision problems, kidney issues, and nerve damage.

Here are a few tips on how you can manage diabetes:

Eat healthy
Stay active
Monitor your feet, skin, and eyes for problems
Checking your blood pressure and cholesterol levels
Checking your blood sugar regularly. Ask your doctor how to check it if you do not know how and to learn what your blood sugar levels should be at!
Manage stress

Speaking with your primary care provider is very important to managing your blood sugar levels. Make sure to have regular appointments with your primary care provider or health care team to track your progress!

Risk Factors

Prediabetes is often the first sign that you need to have some lifestyle changes to better your health. Our goal is for everyone to live a healthy life and preventing type two diabetes is one of the ways that we can do that. Below, you will find a list of behaviors to be mindful of when assessing your health.

Here are a few signs and symptoms of prediabetes to be aware of:

Urinating more often than normal
Being more thirsty than normal
Blurry vision
Tingling or numbness in hands or feet
Being more tired than normal

There are multiple risk factors that put you at a higher risk for developing this condition. These include:

Being overweight
Being 45 years old or older
Having a parent or sibling with prediabetes or type two diabetes
Having polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)
Not being physically active
Having diabetes during pregnancy or giving birth to a baby that was more than 9 pounds

If you are prediabetic, the conditions below may occur if you don’t manage your condition: