What is Pre-Diabetes?
Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention
-- By Liza Barnes & Nicole Nichols, Health Educators
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Diabetes Basics
Under normal circumstances, the glucose (sugar) levels in your blood rise after you eat a meal or snack. In response, your body produces a hormone called insulin, which is needed for the body to convert the glucose in your bloodstream into usable energy. But if insulin isn’t available, or if the body isn’t using it correctly, your blood glucose will remain elevated, and that can be harmful to your body. This is a condition known as diabetes. People who have higher-than-normal blood glucose levels that aren’t quite high enough to be diagnosed as type 2 diabetes have pre-diabetes. In the past, individuals with pre-diabetes would have been considered "borderline diabetic."
Who's at Risk?
Over 50 million Americans over the age of 20 have pre-diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association. If you have any of the risk factors for type 2 diabetes, including uncontrollable factors like age and race, and/or controllable risk factors like obesity and physical inactivity, then you are also at risk for pre-diabetes.
