Let's Talk About Prediabetes

So you’ve been diagnosed with prediabetes. EEK! What's going through your mind? Are you scared? Are you feeling guilty thinking about that cookie you ate last week? Instead of worrying about those things, let's start by discussing what happened that led your doc to give you this diagnosis.

Your blood glucose was higher than normal (read more here about this test), or something called hemoglobin A1c was higher than usual, which means your doctor said you need to make some changes to reverse this and get your blood glucose back into the normal range.

Sounds scary and tough, right?

Does that sound familiar?

But what is prediabetes? What causes it? Can we reverse it? Let’s break it down!

What is prediabetes?

Prediabetes may not seem like a big deal. I mean, we know diabetes itself is associated with major health impacts, but prediabetes doesn’t seem as bad, right?

But prediabetes is still a serious health condition where our glucose (blood sugar) levels are going higher than normal, and possibly staying higher longer, but not technically high enough to be classified as type 2 diabetes.

The good news about prediabetes is that if you’re diagnosed with prediabetes, making lifestyle changes can help you prevent or delay the onset of type 2 diabetes and other scary health conditions like heart disease and stroke!

In a sense, we can think of prediabetes as something reversible for most people.

What actually causes prediabetes?

There are many factors that can lead to increased blood glucose levels, some of which aren’t completely in your control. We will talk about these in detail later.

However, whatever the factors are, the constant situation is that insulin, a hormone made by your pancreas, is having a little trouble helping your body use your blood glucose for energy. Usually, insulin helps glucose get into cells in your body, and it's in those cells that glucose is converted into energy for your body.

I like to think of insulin as a little key and a single cell in your body as a house.

If glucose is invited to a party but needs a key to get into the house, he’s gotta find that key!

With prediabetes or diabetes, that key may not work quite right or there may not be enough keys around. Maybe there’s something in the keyhole or the key is a bit too small, or maybe there just isn’t a key to be found at the house at all, but whatever is going on, that darn key just isn’t letting that glucose into the house very easily!

So more and more glucose are lining up at the door, like “hey! C’mon man! Just get that key to work, we’re the life of the party!” And finally, the key may work for that one glucose, but then the next glucose has to start the process all over again and the cycle continues with more and more glucose just lining up at the door, or in your bloodstream.

In the meantime, your blood glucose goes up, and your pancreas may even respond and try to make more insulin to help out, but that’s hard on your poor pancreas! He doesn’t get paid overtime!

If this situation happens regularly, you may notice an increase in your hemoglobin A1c or fasting blood glucose level, which could lead to the diagnosis of prediabetes or type 2 diabetes. 

Factors We Can or Can't Control

There isn’t an exact known cause of prediabetes.

We know what happens at a cellular level in terms of insulin, as we discussed before. However, there are many risk factors that do play a role in the development of prediabetes and diabetes.

Family history and genetics are two major factors that we really don’t have any control over, but that doesn’t mean that we are doomed just because those factors are present!

There are still many factors we do have partial or complete control over and taking charge in those areas is what we will cover in this resource library!

Everything here (and many more factors) can impact our risk!

Since many of these factors are impacted by lifestyle factors, it means YOU have the power to make a major change in your health, possibly by just making small changes in your life! 

Why should we make lifestyle changes?

While it may seem like a minor health condition, and maybe even your medical team didn’t make a big deal out of the diagnosis or just told you to simply “lose a few pounds and you’ll be fine”, there are certainly some possible health risks associated with just staying where you are right now.

When prediabetes is present, you are at a higher risk of:

• High blood pressure
• Low levels of HDL, or ‘good’ cholesterol
• Higher levels of triglycerides, a type of fat in your blood
• Higher risk of long-term damage to your heart, blood vessels, and kidneys
• Impacts on your nerves, liver, and eyes
• Stroke and heart attack

Making lifestyle changes may seem uncomfortable, but having the items on that list be part of your health record would be even more uncomfortable, right?

Prediabetes is definitely a major health concern, and it impacts so many people in our country. Many of those people don’t even know they have prediabetes!

Bravo to you for being here, taking this first step (or second, or third, or whatever number step you’re on!) to take control of your health in a fun, easy-to-implement, way so you can make those long-term lifestyle changes that work well in your life and are totally maintainable for you!

Your homework for today is going to be writing down your current health information. This will be the first of your 3-month check-ins that you'll do over the next year (or longer!).

Below you'll see the document preview as well as download links for both a Word document or PDF. Use whichever format you prefer!