Pre-diabetes

Have you been told that you're pre-diabetic? Were you told to change your diet and exercise more frequently? Do you understand what 'pre-diabetic' means? Let's dig in!

Pre-diabetes, hyperglycemia, and high blood sugar are synonymous. A normal, fasting glucose, or blood sugar, for a non-diabetic is usually between 70-110 (results may vary by lab and provider). Do not confuse this test with a hemoglobin A1c, or A1c for short. The A1c is an average of your sugar for the past 3 months. The finger-stick test is what your sugar is right now. A normal A1c for non-diabetics will be below 5.7%.

If your fasting glucose is above 120 and you have an A1c of 5.7%-6.4%, you are pre-diabetic.

If you have two abnormal fasting glucose levels on two different days and an A1c of 6.5% or higher, you are diabetic.

Typically, 2 hours after eating a meal your blood sugar should go back down into the normal range.

If you ate before you had your A1c drawn and the number was high (6.8%), it still means you have diabetes. Again, the A1c is an average of your blood sugar over the past 3 months. One meal before the lab test will not affect this result. It will affect your random blood sugar finger-stick, but not the A1c.

The A1c number increases as your average sugar levels increase.
As the blood sugar number increases, so does the A1c. As a reference, oral medications are usually started first, however, once the A1c reaches 10, insulin is the recommended treatment.

So, now what? What can you do? Take your 'pre-diabetes' diagnosis as a wake up call. Now is the time to change. Now is the time to start the diet and exercise regimen.

Remember a few weeks ago when we discussed fruit, vegetables, meat? This is the new diet. The new norm. Make the changes now so we can delay diabetes as long as possible!