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While diabetes is a common condition, it is a complex and widely misunderstood disease. Millions of people are currently living with this chronic illness, while many more are diagnosed or have loved ones who are affected by it. It is a serious ailment that can result in a myriad of complications. However, it can be managed and does not have to decimate a person’s life.

Click here to see the 60 second habit that can reverse Type 2 Diabetes!

To help better understand this condition, consider this posting to be a Diabetes 101 designed to provide some basic tidbits about the disease, blood sugar, and the importance of A1C.
The A1C test is a common diagnostic tool used to diagnose diabetes and gauge how well someone is managing their disorder. This simple blood test is also known by other monikers, such as HbA1C, hemoglobin A1C, glycosylated hemoglobin, and glycated hemoglobin.

A1C measures an individual’s blood sugar over an extended period. Simply put, it indicates a person’s average blood sugar level over a 2-3 month timespan. Specifically, it measures what percentage of someone’s hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying protein present in red blood cells, is coated with sugar. A normal A1C level is considered to be below 5.7 percent.

The higher the A1C level, the poorer the blood sugar control, which translates to a higher risk of diabetes-related health complications, such as heart disease, stroke, hypertension, blindness, kidney disease, amputation, and premature death.

Routinely testing a person’s A1C level is a crucial component for proper management of the disease as well as a good preventative measure, particularly if someone is at risk for developing diabetes. Moreover, it is essential for maintaining and safeguarding an individual’s overall health and well-being.

It is also essential to differentiate between the multiple forms of diabetes. There are four different types of diagnoses in which a person can be categorized. These groups include the following:

  • Prediabetes is pronounced when the A1C level is between 5.7 and 6.4 percent, which means the person has a higher risk of developing the illness as well as other complications down the road. This condition is also known as impaired fasting glucose.
  • Type I is known as early on-set, or juvenile diabetes, due to the diagnosis coming at an early age. Most Type I sufferers are diagnosed during childhood or their teen years.
  • Type II is adult on-set or diet-related diabetes. This form arises and is diagnosed in adulthood or golden years.
  • Gestational diabetes results from pregnancy or complications related to this event.

For Type I, Type II, and gestational diabetes to be diagnosed, an A1C level of 6.5 percent or higher on two separate occasions would need to be detected.

For most diabetics, an A1C level of 7 percent or below is a common target goal. Those who have A1C levels above 8 percent are in the danger zone. It indicates the diabetes is not well-controlled, and the person has a higher risk of developing other health-related complications. Alas, the most critical takeaway from Diabetes 101 should be that early diagnosis leads to early treatment, better well-being, and fewer complications.

Article originally published on DrRobertJWinn.com

Source: Diabetes 101: Blood Sugar & A1C | Collingswood, NJ Patch

]]> How Serious Is Prediabetes? – Diabetes Self-Management https://a1cdiabetestest.com/how-serious-is-prediabetes-diabetes-self-management/ Sun, 05 Jan 2020 04:03:12 +0000 https://www.diabetesselfmanagement.com/blog/how-serious-is-prediabetes/ Read more]]>

How Serious Is Prediabetes?

According to the American Diabetes Association (ADA), over 84 million Americans had prediabetes in 2015. But how big a problem is prediabetes?

Is prediabetes a real disease? Or are they just trying to scare people, sell medicines, and get more money for diabetes services? Let’s see.

Click here to see how thousands of people are treating pre-diabetes!

What is prediabetes?
According to the Centers for Disease Control, prediabetes means blood sugars that are higher than normal, but not high enough to qualify as diabetes. It’s what used to sometimes be called “borderline diabetes.”

Prediabetes is a numbers game. There are no symptoms that define it. The term “prediabetes” classes people with only slightly high sugars as having an illness.

Some experts strongly dislike the term, because it sounds like a stage on the way to diabetes. It can be, but many people never get there. It depends on your life and how you live it.

A person can be classed with prediabetes in three ways:

• Impaired fasting glucose (IFG): A fasting blood glucose between 100–125 mg/dl (5.6–7.0 mmol/l).

• Impaired glucose tolerance (IGT): An oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) result from 140–199 mg/dl. The person is given a sweet drink and his glucose is tested one and/or two hours later.

An OGTT was the first test used to diagnose prediabetes, but it’s used much less now because of the time, difficulty, and expense involved.

• Hemoglobin A1C: An HbA1c level of 5.7% to 6.4%. HbA1c is a rough measure of a person’s average glucose over the last 2–3 months.

Some of the increased number of people with prediabetes is from the newer tests. More people are being tested, the cutoffs have been lowered, so more cases are being found. But what is the significance of these numbers?

According to Australian health professionals writing on this website, IFG may indicate insulin resistance in the liver, so that it pours out too much glucose at night. IGT may mean there is not enough insulin or it is not working well enough to handle a large meal. Elevated HbA1c could be either one or both of these.

Is prediabetes dangerous?
People with prediabetes have been found to have 10–20% increased chance of heart attack or stroke than people with normal blood sugars. That is not a huge difference, but the higher the glucose numbers, the more risk.

Some doctors think prediabetes is very dangerous. “Pre-diabetes is not ‘pre’ anything,” says Dr. Mark Hyman, MD, author of The Blood Sugar Solution. “It is a deadly disease.” Dr. Alan J. Garber, MD, PhD, FACE, who helped develop guidelines on treating prediabetes for the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) says that a prediabetic person’s risks for eye, kidney, and nerve damage, as well as heart disease, are nearly as great as those of a person with diabetes.

The degree of cardiovascular risk seems to depend on other elements besides blood sugar, though. Factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, lack of exercise, and stress, may contribute as much or more to one’s risk as glucose level does.

Some damage seems to start in the prediabetes range. This study from the University of Toronto found clear signs of neuropathy (nerve damage), similar to those in new-onset Type 2 diabetes, in people with prediabetic glucose numbers. Painful neuropathy is often a first symptom of Type 2 or of prediabetes.

Medical treatments for prediabetes
The AACE says that, as of now, no medications have been approved specifically for treating prediabetes. However, they list many glucose-lowering drugs to consider prescribing off-label, including metformin, acarbose, GLP-1 agonists, TZDs, and insulin glargine.

The AACE also lists the weight loss drugs orlistat and phentermine/topiramate extended release as treatments for prediabetes.

Some experts think that medicating prediabetes may be a classic case of overprescribing. Edwin Gale, Emeritus Professor of Diabetic Medicine and former head of the University Department of Clinical Science in North Bristol, cautions that there is a “lack of evidence as to the benefits of intervention.” He cautions against using a “term which appears to confer disease status upon the majority of old people in the population.”

People may be stressed and stigmatized by a diagnosis of prediabetes. They may find it harder to buy health insurance or possibly to get a job. Overtreatment of a condition that isn’t even a disease can cause its own problems.

The scariest thing for me is how prediabetes is being identified with weight. Every website you go to, from professional organizations like AACE or ADA, to news organizations like CNN, to medical sites like WebMD, lists “lose weight” as one of the most important things you can do. Yet we know that sustained weight loss is rare. Focusing on weight can distract from focus on healthy behaviors.

On the plus side, a label of prediabetes can be a wake-up call and get people moving more, stressing less, not smoking, and eating healthier. You might also explore alternative approaches you can find on our site and others.

Nutritionist Amy Campbell wrote about ways to reverse prediabetes here.

Want to learn more about prediabetes? Read “Prediabetes: What to Know” and “Stopping Prediabetes In Its Tracks.”

Learn more about the health and medical experts who who provide you with the cutting-edge resources, tools, news, and more on Diabetes Self-Management.
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Source: How Serious Is Prediabetes? – Diabetes Self-Management

]]> Prediabetes – Your Chance to Prevent Type 2 Diabetes | CDC https://a1cdiabetestest.com/prediabetes-your-chance-to-prevent-type-2-diabetes-cdc/ Sun, 05 Jan 2020 04:01:31 +0000 http://bit.ly/2hMpYrt Read more]]>

What Is Prediabetes?

Prediabetes is a serious health condition where blood sugar levels are higher than normal, but not high enough yet to be diagnosed as type 2 diabetes. Approximately 84 million American adults—more than 1 out of 3—have prediabetes. Of those with prediabetes, 90% don’t know they have it. Prediabetes puts you at increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.

Find out how to reverse Prediabetes naturally!

The good news is that if you have prediabetes, the CDC-led National Diabetes Prevention Program can help you make lifestyle changes to prevent or delay type 2 diabetes and other serious health problems.

What Causes Prediabetes?

Insulin is a hormone made by your pancreas that acts like a key to let blood sugar into cells for use as energy. If you have prediabetes, the cells in your body don’t respond normally to insulin. Your pancreas makes more insulin to try to get cells to respond. Eventually your pancreas can’t keep up, and your blood sugar rises, setting the stage for prediabetes—and type 2 diabetes down the road.

Signs & Symptoms

You can have prediabetes for years but have no clear symptoms, so it often goes undetected until serious health problems such as type 2 diabetes show up. It’s important to talk to your doctor about getting your blood sugar tested if you have any of the risk factors for prediabetes, which include:

Mature African American Man

The good news: prediabetes can be reversed.

  • Being overweight
  • Being 45 years or older
  • Having a parent, brother, or sister with type 2 diabetes
  • Being physically active less than 3 times a week
  • Ever having gestational diabetes (diabetes during pregnancy) or giving birth to a baby who weighed more than 9 pounds
  • Having polycystic ovary syndrome

Race and ethnicity are also a factor: African Americans, Hispanic/Latino Americans, American Indians, Pacific Islanders, and some Asian Americans are at higher risk.

Simple Blood Sugar Test

You can get a simple blood sugar test to find out if you have prediabetes. Ask your doctor if you should be tested.

Preventing Type 2 Diabetes

If you have prediabetes, losing a small amount of weight if you’re overweight and getting regular physical activity can lower your risk for developing type 2 diabetes. A small amount of weight loss means around 5% to 7% of your body weight, just 10 to 14 pounds for a 200-pound person. Regular physical activity means getting at least 150 minutes a week of brisk walking or a similar activity. That’s just 30 minutes a day, five days a week.

National Diabetes Prevention Program

A lifestyle change program offered through the CDC-led National Diabetes Prevention Program can help you make those changes—and make them stick. Through the program, you can lower your risk of developing type 2 diabetes by as much as 58% (71% if you’re over age 60). Highlights include:

  • Working with a trained coach to make realistic, lasting lifestyle changes.
  • Discovering how to eat healthy and add more physical activity into your day.
  • Finding out how to manage stress, stay motivated, and solve problems that can slow your progress.
  • Getting support from people with similar goals and challenges.

Ask your doctor or nurse if there’s a CDC-recognized National Diabetes Prevention Program offered in your community or find one here. The best time to prevent type 2 diabetes is now.

Source: Prediabetes – Your Chance to Prevent Type 2 Diabetes | CDC

]]> Prediabetes: What’s Next for Your Lifestyle? https://a1cdiabetestest.com/prediabetes-whats-next-for-your-lifestyle/ Sat, 04 Jan 2020 22:25:36 +0000 https://www.healthline.com/health/type-2-diabetes/what-is-prediabetes Read more]]>

If you receive a prediabetes diagnosis, it means you have a higher-than-normal blood sugar level. But, it’s not high enough to be diagnostic for diabetes. If you don’t get treatment for it, prediabetes can lead to type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.

According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), prediabetes is reversible. Treatment may include lifestyle modifications, such as diet and exercise, and medication. If you have prediabetes and don’t make lifestyle changes, you could develop type 2 diabetes within 10 years, according to the Mayo Clinic.

The first step for managing prediabetes is understanding what a prediabetes diagnosis means. Read on to learn more about this diagnosis and what you can do.

Other names

Your doctor may refer to prediabetes as the following:

  • impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), which means higher-than-normal blood sugar after a meal
  • impaired fasting glucose (IFG), which means higher-than-normal blood sugar in the morning before eating
  • hemoglobin A1C level between 5.7 and 6.4 percent

Prediabetes has no clear symptoms. Some people may experience conditions that are associated with insulin resistance, such as polycystic ovarian syndrome and acanthosis nigricans, which involves the development of dark, thick, and often velvety patches of skin. This discoloration usually occurs around the:

  • elbows
  • knees
  • neck
  • armpits
  • knuckles

If you’ve been diagnosed with prediabetes, it’s important to consult your doctor if you experience:

These are symptoms typical of type 2 diabetes, and may indicate that your prediabetes has progressed to type 2 diabetes. A doctor can run a series of tests to confirm this.

The pancreas releases a hormone called insulin when you eat so that the cells of your body can take the sugar from the blood into the cells for energy. That’s how insulin helps lower your blood sugar level. In the case of prediabetes, the cells don’t respond properly to insulin. This is called insulin resistance.

The causes of insulin resistance are unclear. According to the Mayo Clinic, prediabetes is strongly linked to lifestyle factors and genetics.

People who are overweight and sedentary are at an increased risk of prediabetes.

Prediabetes can occur in anyone, but some factors increase your chances. If you’re over 45 years of age or you have a body mass index (BMI) higher than 25, your doctor may want to screen you for prediabetes.

Another risk factor is the storage of more fat around the waist than the hips. You can measure this risk factor by checking if your waist is 40 or more inches if you’re male and 35 inches or more if you’re female.

Another risk factor for prediabetes is being sedentary.

Your doctor will need to do a blood test for an accurate diagnosis. This means drawing a blood sample to send to a lab.

Results can vary depending on the type of test. You should take the same test twice to confirm the diagnosis, according to the NIH. Devices that measure glucose levels, such as the finger-stick test, aren’t used for diagnosis. Instead, your doctor will use one or two of these tests:

Hemoglobin A1c test

The hemoglobin A1c test, which is also called the A1c test or glycosylated hemoglobin test, measures your average blood sugar level over the last two to three months. This test doesn’t require fasting and can be done any time.

An A1c value of 5.7 to 6.4 percent is diagnostic for prediabetes. A second A1c test is recommended to confirm the results. The higher the A1c, the higher the risk that your prediabetes will progress to type 2 diabetes.

Fasting plasma glucose (FPG) test

During an FPG test, your doctor will ask you to fast for eight hours or overnight. Before you eat, a healthcare professional will take a blood sample for testing.

A blood sugar level of 100-125 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) indicates prediabetes.

Oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT)

An OGTT also requires fasting. Your doctor will check your blood glucose levels twice, once at the beginning of the appointment and then two hours later after you drink a sugary drink.

If the blood sugar level reads 140-199 mg/dL after two hours, then the test indicates IGT, or prediabetes.

Treating prediabetes can also be thought of as preventing type 2 diabetes. If your doctor diagnoses you with prediabetes, they’ll recommend certain lifestyle changes. A study called the Diabetes Prevention Program showed a reduction of approximately 58 percent in people who kept up with these changes in the long term.

The most common ways to manage prediabetes are:

  • maintaining a diet that’s rich in fiber
  • exercising regularly
  • losing weight
  • taking medication if your doctor prescribed it

Some people with diabetes choose to use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) treatments to manage their condition. CAM treatments can include taking supplements, meditation, and acupuncture. Always check with your doctor before starting any CAM treatments because they may interact with your medication.

Low-carbohydrate diet

Many studies suggest that a low-carbohydrate diet improves blood glucose control, insulin resistance, and weight. Many people consider a carbohydrate intake of 21-70 grams per day to be low-carbohydrate diet, but no standard definition exists. According to the article, lower levels of carbohydrates may help those with type 2 diabetes but most of the data are from studies of short duration, and while it doesn’t address prediabetes specifically, it may be fair to assume the same would be true for those with prediabetes.

Low-carbohydrate diets may not be recommended for people with high cholesterol, kidney, or heart disease. Talk to your doctor before making major changes to your diet.

If you don’t get treatment, prediabetes can develop into type 2 diabetes and other conditions, such as:

The good news is that prediabetes is reversible with long-term lifestyle changes.

Have more:

  • fish with omega-3 fatty acids, such as salmon and tuna
  • vegetables
  • fruits
  • high-fiber foods, such as whole grains

Have less:

  • than 1,500 mg of sodium per day
  • alcohol, or limit to one drink per day
  • foods with added sugar and unhealthy fats

Prediabetes is reversible. You can prevent or slow the development of prediabetes and diabetes through lifestyle changes.

One study showed that a 5 to 7 percent weight loss greatly reduces the risk of diabetes, according to the NIH. Those who participated in the study followed a low-fat, low-calorie diet and exercised for 30 minutes five times per week.

A heart-healthy lifestyle includes the following:

Eating right

Fiber-rich foods, such as fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, will help you reach your health goals. According to the Mayo Clinic, the Mediterranean-style diet follows these principles.

Exercising more

You can reduce your risk of diabetes by being regularly active. Thirty minutes of any activity that raises your heartbeat to your target rate, such as walking, most days of the week, is recommended.

Ways to incorporate physical activity into your daily schedule include:

  • riding a bike to work
  • walking instead of riding the bus or driving
  • going to a gym
  • participating in recreational sports with a team

Thirty minutes of exercise per day and a 5 to 10 percent weight loss reduce your risk of type 2 diabetes progression by over 58 percent, according to the American Diabetes Association.

Source: Prediabetes: What’s Next for Your Lifestyle?

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