Alarmingly, a serious health condition is wreaking havoc with 1 in 3 people in the U.S., 80% of whom are completely unaware that they have it. How is that possible? This condition, prediabetes, is lurking just below the radar. Blood sugar levels are higher than normal but not yet high enough to be diagnosed as Type II diabetes.
Lifestyle Changes Can Reverse Prediabetes
But there’s good news: prediabetes can be reversed! You can bring your blood sugar level back to normal with a few important choices:
Eat healthful, whole foods and avoid highly processed ones, such as chips, soft drinks, candy, cookies, and more.
Achieve and maintain a healthy weight.
Make physical activity part of your daily routine.
Manage stress.
Get adequate sleep.
Each of these actions can help, and they reinforce each other.*
The bad news: without any intervention, 15-30% of people with prediabetes will develop Type II diabetes within five years of diagnosis. If that happens, they’ll require oral medication and/or injections to keep their blood sugar at healthy levels. What’s more, this progression greatly increases the chances of experiencing a stroke, a heart attack, nerve damage, hearing loss, vision loss, foot or leg amputation, kidney failure, cancer, and even Alzheimer’s disease, which is often referred to as Type III diabetes.
You may have prediabetes if you experience any of the following:
tiredness
frequent urination
blurred vision
stomach pain
recurrent infections
However, prediabetes often doesn’t have any symptoms. So, the best way to determine if you have it is to ask your physician to order a blood test. He/she will determine what may need to be measured beyond your fasting blood sugar.
Insulin Resistance: The #1 Cause of Prediabetes
Insulin is a hormone released by your pancreas that tells your cells to take in the sugar in your food and convert it into energy. If you have insulin resistance, your cells don't open up. With nowhere else to go, the sugar stays in the blood, while the pancreas keeps trying to regulate it. Over time, as it produces more and more insulin, the pancreas wears out until it can no longer produce large amounts of insulin. Eventually, it can’t keep up, so your blood sugar rises, and the stage is set for prediabetes.
But don’t despair. You have the ability to prevent or reverse prediabetes. Incurring this condition is mainly up to you and your lifestyle choices.
*For additional information and support on how you can begin to make some of the lifestyle changes mentioned above, please check the blog page, where you’ll find a listing of my articles covering all the topics above. For more details, please see my about prediabetes page.
And if you’d like personalized support, don't hesitate to get in touch with me at sandy@sculptyourhealth.com. I’m happy to offer a free consultation to anyone who is interested.