Are you told by the Doctor that you are a prediabetic ? Did he say your blood sugar levels are nearing to the red zone. And now you could understand only thing that you are at a risk of developing diabetes type 2, But no one could clearly tell you what exactly is the difference between diabetes and prediabetes. I believe being diagnosed as a prediabetic is a great gift because you can reverse it easily and prevent diabetes type -2 , I was diagnosed a prediabetic 3 years ago But managed not to enter the diabetic zone
Doctors generally check your fasting blood glucose levels and if the levels are near to 110mg/dl . Doctors will say you are nearing the border and should be careful, They generally advice consuming less rice, potato and avoiding sweets . Doctors also advocate to prefer roti instead of rice. But I know there is a lot of confusion regarding this condition.
I will define prediabetes as confusion combined with fear
PREDIABETES = FEAR + CONFUSION
The above definition is more of psychological, So let us see what is logical definition of prediabetes as explained by wikipedia
Prediabetes is the precursor stage to diabetes mellitus in which not all of the symptoms required to label a person as diabetic are present, but blood sugar is abnormally high. This stage is often referred to as the “grey area.”[1]
Exact Difference between Pre-Diabetes and Diabetes:
You may doubt you have prediabetes if you see the following symptoms
- Increased Urination.
- Increase in Thirst.
- Feeling hungry, i.e appetite increases. good for your taste buds 😆 but not for your health.
- Your waist size increases. This is also called syndrome-x as explained by Dr. Ray D Strand.
- Mild headaches
- Tingling sensation / numbness in feet or hands
You can confirm you have prediabetes if
- If your HBA1c Reading is in the range of 5.7 -6.4%
- Your Glucose tolerance test reading is 140 -199 mg/dl
- Your Fasting Blood Glucose level is 100 – 125 mg/dl
Insulin Production and Pre-Diabetes:
insulin production is normal in prediabetes But this condition appears when the body develops “resistance to Insulin”. which is mandated to process glucose in the body for generating extensive amount of energy to carry out specific tasks. with increase in insulin resistance, Body requires more insulin which is difficult to be produced by the pancreas. So people with Prediabetes should adopt a diet which works against insulin resistance
Insulin resistance means , body needs more insulin to convert glucose into energy resulting in increased blood sugar levels and fat deposition, So if your belly is growing it is an early sign you might be at risk of developing diabetes
You can confirm you have diabetes if
- If your HBA1c Reading is in the range of 6.5% and above
- Your Glucose tolerance test reading is above 200 mg/dl
- Your Fasting Blood Glucose level is above 125 mg/dl
to know more about these tests you may click below
http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-basics/diagnosis/
Do not confirm you have diabetes by just taking Fasting Blood glucose levels , get all the three tests above done and then come to a conclusion. You should not be worrying if you have prediabetes, Because there are many people who reversed diabetes just with life style changes just like Mr. Pramit Bhargava who reversed diabetes at the age of 48
Diabetes is caused by lack of balance in metabolism, So you can reverse your condition very easily if you can afford to the following
- Give enough physical activity to your body, Exercise can bring a lot of difference.
- Change your eating habits, keep sweets and snacks away
- Take vitamin supplements in the form of vegetables etc or in the form of pills.
It is difficult to tell you exactly what can you do here itself , If you are prediabetic and you want to avoid becoming a diabetic we have a list of 22 things you can do to avoid diabetes