Stop Diabetes Before It Begins

Millions have pre-diabetes and don’t know it. To mark World Diabetes Day this month, we tell you why it’s important to find out, and act to lower your diabetes risk.

An estimated one out of three adults is pre-diabetic, which means blood sugar levels are higher than normal but below the threshold for type 2 diabetes. Yet 90% of these people do not realize they are in this dangerous grey zone.

“You are not going to have symptoms for pre-diabetes,” says Dr David Nathan, director of the Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital Diabetes Centre. “Instead, you or your doctor should determine if you have any of the common risk factors, get your blood sugar levels checked to determine if you have pre-diabetes, and then make the necessary lifestyle changes you need to stop type 2 diabetes from occurring.”

Get tested for pre-diabetes

Everyone over the age of 45 should be tested for pre-diabetes, experts say. The simple blood test for glycosylated hemoglobin, or HbA1c, shows what your average blood sugar levels have been over the past three months.

• Normal: HbA1c below 5.7%

• Prediabetes: 5.7% to 6.4%

• Diabetes: 6.5% or higher

Who is at risk?