The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines prediabetes as a “serious condition in which blood sugar levels are higher than normal, but have not yet reached levels sufficiently high to diagnose type 2 diabetes.”
The organization details that a person with this condition can make changes to their lifestyle – with the help of specialists – to prevent or delay the onset of type 2 diabetes and other health problems.
Causes and symptoms
Like diabetes, prediabetes is associated with insulin production. “If you have prediabetes, the cells in your body do not respond to insulin normally. To try to get them to respond, the pancreas produces more insulin, but it won’t be able to keep up and blood sugar levels will rise, creating the conditions for prediabetes and type 2 diabetes in the future,” explains the CDC.
Periodic medical tests are essential to identify whether or not a person suffers from prediabetes, since it can be present for years without symptoms that give it away and, according to the CDC, it is usually detected until it escalates to serious health problems such as type 2 diabetes. The body details that there are some risk factors:
- Being overweight
- Be 45 years or older
- Having a parent or sibling with type 2 diabetes
- Do physical activity less than three times a week
- Have ever had gestational diabetes (diabetes during pregnancy) or have given birth to a baby that weighed more than 4 kilos
- Have polycystic ovary syndrome
“Race and ethnicity are also factors: African Americans, Hispanics or Latinos, American Indians, Pacific Islanders, and some Asian Americans are at higher risk,” he details.