This early stage type II diabetes, during which blood sugar levels are elevated but not raised sufficiently to warrant a diagnosis of diabetes, is known as pre-diabetes and, although it may not appear to be of serious concern, studies show that, even at this early stage, permanent long-term damage is being done, especially to the circulatory system and to the heart. Pre-diabetes currently affects over 50 million Americans.
Testing is a fairly simple process using one of two standard tests – a fasting plasma glucose test or an oral glucose tolerance test. These tests will indicate whether your blood glucose levels are normal, pre-diabetic or diabetic.
The good news is that, if your test reveals that you are pre-diabetic then bringing your blood glucose levels back down to normal and returning your body to a good state of health and forestalling the onset of diabetes is generally quite simple.
Although medication can be used to correct pre-diabetes, tests have shown that a simple program of diet and exercise, combined if necessary with a relatively modest weight loss, can often return blood glucose levels to normal quite quickly and, as long as you maintain a healthy diet and an exercise program, there is no reason at all why your blood glucose level should not remain at normal levels for a considerable period of time. This does not of course mean that you will eliminate the risk of developing type II diabetes altogether, but it does mean that you can delay its onset and prevent early and irreparable damage to your circulatory system and heart.
When we talk about a program of weight loss and exercise here we are not talking about anything too drastic and a reduction in weight of as little as 5% to 10% and a light exercise program of say 30 minutes of brisk walking 5 times a week can be sufficient.
Pre-diabetes is a serious problem which is both easy to detect and simple to treat. All that we are really lacking at the moment is sufficient publicly available pre-diabetic information.
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