Are you worried that you might have pre-diabetes? Perhaps someone in your family has been diagnosed with diabetes Type I or II. Studies have suggested diabetes might run in families, so this would be reason to be concerned. There are some steps you can take, however, to prevent pre-diabetes from becoming full-blown diabetes.
Pre-diabetes And Your Health
The steps you can take to prevent the pre-diabetes symptoms from becoming full blown diabetes. They will also help you in decreasing blood pressure, high cholesterol, and your risk of cardiovascular disease. Remember that the healthier you get, the better you are going to feel.
Pre-diabetes means your blood glucose level is elevated, but is not high enough yet to be diagnosed as diabetes Type II. For some people with pre-diabetes, it may take up to 10 years for them to get the full-blown disease. However, it can also happen much quicker. So the quicker you take action, the better off you will be.
Testing And Pre-diabetes
You might have already been tested for pre-diabetes, with either the OGTT, or oral glucose tolerance test, or the FPG, which is the fasting plasma glucose test. Both of these tests work equally well at reading your blood glucose. They also both require you to fast overnight.
With the FPG test, a normal fasting blood glucose reading will be under 100 mg/dl. Anything between 100 – 125 mg/dl means you have pre-diabetes. If it is over 125, then you have diabetes. The OGTT usually takes more time to complete, and has slightly different readings, which is why the FPG test is sometimes more common.
Change Your Lifestyle To Change Your Pre-diabetes Status
Many people who are diagnosed with pre-diabetes are overweight. Losing just 10% of your body mass can vastly improve your status. Getting moderate exercise for a half hour everyday will help you lose the weight you need to. Daily exercise will also help lower your blood pressure, and help you to sleep better at night. Even something as simple as video games. Find the top selling wii games and get off the couch.
Cutting out tobacco use will also help. There are nicotine gum and patches that might help you to quit smoking, or you could try electronic cigarettes. Also, you need to cut down on caffeine and sugar. All of this can be done with small, incremental steps that build up over time.