A patient asked me – “what is prediabetes?” after coming in to discuss their recent abnormal blood test results.
The short answer is that it’s a wake up – you’re health is deteriorating and will get worse if you don’t do something about it. BUT you’ve got time to reverse it and get well again.
What Is Prediabetes?
Prediabetes is also referred to as borderline diabetes. You might hear the terms ‘impaired glucose tolerance’ or ‘impaired fasting glucose’ at your doctors. It’s picked up on blood tests and basically means your blood sugar is higher than it should be, but not high enough for you to be diagnosed with full blown type 2 diabetes – yet.
If you have it without knowing or you don’t deal with it, you stand a good chance of getting diabetes.
What Are the Symptoms?
There are usually no symptoms with prediabetes. You don’t tend to get any until you go on to develop diabetes. Then you can feel tired, you can be overly thirsty, and be running to the loo a lot.
It’s estimated that 1 in 3 adults in the UK have prediabetes, rates have gone up dramatically in the last 10 years.
Could You Have It?
The biggest reason that people get prediabetes, and progress onto type 2 diabetes is because of excess weight.
Obesity levels are going up all the time in the UK. That explains why as many as a third of adults have prediabetes, even if they don’t realise it yet.
If you’re overweight and haven’t seen your doctor in ages, go and see them and ask to be checked.
Can Prediabetes Be Reversed?
The really good news is that it’s within your power to completely reverse prediabetes and get your health back.
You can prevent yourself going on to develop type 2 diabetes.
Prediabetes is caused by less than ideal lifestyle choices, in particular around what you eat and how much activity you do.
The key to reversing prediabetes (and losing weight into the bargin), is to eat what your body needs, and do what you body is designed for. This is easier said than done and I’m sure you’ve tried many times already.
I have many people with both prediabetes and diabetes on my Uber Slim weight loss program.
They tend to do really well, because along with their new found motivation they are working alongside a doctor who understands diabetes, so they can have the confidence that they’re doing the right things.
The program is absolutely ideal for people with prediabetes because it’s designed to regain health, which is what you need to do if you’ve got prediabetes.
Contact me if you’ve got any questions, I’d delighted to get back to you with my answer.
Have a great week.
Dr Julie