Prediabetes are mostly silent diseases (without any signs or symptoms). It’s common and reversible. You can prevent or delay prediabetes from turning into type 2 diabetes with simple, proven lifestyle changes.
What Is Prediabetes?
Prediabetes is a serious health condition where blood sugar levels are higher than normal, but not high enough yet to be diagnosed as type 2 diabetes. Most people with prediabetes don’t know they have it. Could this be you? It puts you at increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.
What Causes Prediabetes?
Insulin is a hormone made by your pancreas that acts like a key to let blood sugar into cells for use as energy. If you have prediabetes, the cells in your body don’t respond normally to insulin. Your pancreas makes more insulin to try to get cells to respond. Eventually your pancreas can’t keep up, and your blood sugar rises, setting the stage for prediabetes—and type 2 diabetes down the road.
A Silent Disease!
Pre-diabetes is common and underdiagnosed. You can have prediabetes for years but have no clear symptoms, so it often goes undetected until serious health problems such as type 2 diabetes show up. It’s important to talk to your doctor about getting your blood sugar tested if you have any of the risk factors for prediabetes.
Prediabetes = Prevent diabetes
Think of prediabetes as a fork in the road. If you ignore it, your risk for type 2 diabetes goes up. Lose a modest amount of weight and get regular physical activity, and your risk goes down. Modest weight loss means 5% to 7% of body weight, just 10 to 14 pounds for a 200-pound person. Regular physical activity means getting at least 150 minutes a week of brisk walking or similar activity. That’s just 30 minutes a day, five days a week.
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