Prediabetes: The wake-up call you shouldn’t ignore

Prediabetes is a wake-up call that you’re on the path to Diabetes. This condition means your blood glucose levels are higher than normal but aren’t high enough to be called diabetes. Some people also call it “borderline” diabetes.

How does it occur?

A condition called insulin resistance increases the risk of getting prediabetes. Insulin is a hormone that is made by the pancreas, a large gland behind the stomach.

Insulin helps sugar from food move from your blood into your body’s cells. Your cells need sugar for energy. Sugar from food can be from sweet foods and drinks, like candy, cakes, cookies, pies, and soda, or from carbohydrates like fruit, bread, rice, pasta, and milk that turn into sugar.

When you have insulin resistance, your body produces insulin but does not use it effectively. So sugar builds up in the blood, which can lead to prediabetes symptoms.

Most people with insulin resistance aren’t aware that they have it for many years until it turns into type 2 diabetes. But the good news is that if people find out early that they have insulin resistance, they may be able to delay progression to type 2 diabetes.

How can you find out that you are at the prediabetes stage?

There are no possible signs or symptoms of prediabetes. However, one sign that may indicate that you are at risk of diabetes type 2 is darkened skin on certain body parts like armpits, elbows, knees, neck, and knuckles.

Few signs and symptoms that confirm that you’ve moved from prediabetes to diabetes type 2 stage are:

• Increased thirst
• Fatigue
• Frequent urination
• Blurred vision

You are at the risk of developing prediabetes if you are:

• Overweight
• Men with waists larger than 40 inches and women with waists larger 35 inches
• Eat a lot of red meat, processed meat, and drink sugar-sweetened beverages
• Lives a sedentary lifestyle
• 45 years or older in age
• Have a family history of diabetes
• Have a history of gestational diabetes or of giving birth to a baby weighing more than 4.1kgs
• Women with Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS)
• People with certain sleep disorders like obstructive sleep apnea. It happens especially with people who do shift jobs (change shift or night shifts)

Here’s the good news.

It is possible to prevent prediabetes from developing into diabetes. All you need to do is live “healthy”. Eat healthy foods, get more physical activity, lose excess weight, and control your blood pressure and cholesterol.

Usually, medicines are not prescribed to prediabetics. However, it is good to seek experts’ advice on what activities you can do for diabetes prevention. Also, it is advisable that you get your blood sugar checked for diabetes type 2 yearly. You can take help of homeopathy for the same. As homeopathic medicines for diabetes helps you in maintaining ‘normal’ levels of insulin in your body naturally.