Pre Diabetes
Just read an article (Health Daily News) about how most doctors miss the opportunity to treat pre-diabetics. With the abundance of information available to people today about common health issues and how doctors are forced into the insurance model of health care delivery, I don't think all the blame should be put on the doorstep of the average practitioner. Plus I am not talking to doctors here but people looking for ways to improve their own health.
You Are In the Driver's Seat
You are looking here as you have learned that like most areas of life, in health, nobody is coming to save you and no doctor is going to deliver a magic pill that will undo decades or poor food and exercise choices.
Pre-Diabetes is Super Common
So back to pre-diabetes: Some estimate that more than a third of U.S. adults are in the pre-diabetic category with an elevated blood sugar but not enough to be classified as diabetics. Even with only pre-diabetes, a person is at a higher risk for circulatory problems, kidney disease, nerve and retinal damage.
According to the article, shocking as it may seem, pre-diabetes is one of the biggest risk factors for developing diabetes (sarcasm intended). Not everyone with pre-diabetes blood sugar numbers ends up with full blown diabetes, however. The rate is about 15-30%.
No Reliable Symptoms For Pre-Diabetes
More importantly, pre-diabetics usually don't know they are in that risk category. If you look at the signs and symptoms or pre-diabetes, you will notice that there aren't any reliable indicators. Rising blood sugar and insulin resistance doesn't have a cardinal sign or symptom like some disease processes.
Even with a blood test in front of them, many people and doctors will wait and wait until the blood test finally comes back with a blood sugar of 180 or something (we like something closer to 90) before beginning treatment.
Let HbA1C Be Your Guide
This is a good time to bring up HbA1C. This value is especially helpful as it represents the sugar levels of the red blood cells that live about 3 months. That means that some RBCs are a weekold and some are a month old and some are closer to three months old. Therefore this value shows trends over time instead of just a momentary snapshot of fasting blood sugar. So if your fasting blood sugar looks good for some reason but your HbA1C is elevated, you can figure that you are developing insulin resistance and diabetic problems are likely to be in your future.
Shoot For Healthy Range
Our blood analysis software program divides the data into one of three categories. The value can be in healthy range, moving out of healthy range but still not pathological and out of lab range or the pathological range. The lab range is determined by drawing a bell curve on the data the lab receives from all of its clients over a certain time period. So for blood sugar some people are going to be in healthy range, some low and some high.
The healthy range is instead a range agreed upon by a group of physiologists instead of just averaging out a bunch of pathologies. At OVitaminPro we figure that the best time to treat something including pre-diabetes is a soon as it begins to drift out of range, not after it becomes a pathology. It is way easier to fix things as they just begin to go off the rails instead of waiting until you are in a full blown pathology state. Has someone said that prevention is better than a cure?
Take Action Sooner Rather Than Later
It is good to have a narrow panic range when it comes to fasting blood sugar and HbA1C values. That means as soon as you see it drifting away from a healthy value, that is the time to take stern measures to bring it back into healthy range. You will probably need a combination of dietary changes, fewer carbs in general and way fewer sugar and alcohol carbs and probably some blood sugar support supplements.
Remember, Test, Treat and ReTest
One the supplement front we can suggest things like Vital Nutrients Blood Sugar Support , Integrative Therapeutics Glycemic Manager and BetterGenix AdrenalGenix.