How soon can prediabetes transition to diabetes?

Dr. Rahul Baxi, Consultant Diabetologist, Bombay Hospital explains in a tweet: When glucose levels don’t meet the criteria for Diabetes but are still high to be considered normal. Includes

1. IFG - Impaired Fasting glucose - FPG 100-125 mg%

2. IGT (75 gm OGTT)- Impaired Glucose Tolerance - 2 hr PG 140-199 mg%

3. HbA1C - 5.7-6.4%

Adults with overweight or obesity with first degree relative with diabetes, history of cardiovascular disease, hypertension (high BP), HDL < 35 mg% or TG > 250 mg%, women with PCOS, physical inactivity, insulin resistance association should get tested for prediabetes or diabetes, he explains in the series of tweets.

Prediabetes is frequently asymptomatic, which means that a person might fail to notice any symptoms. The risk factors like obesity, sedentary lifestyle, lack of sufficient physical activity, and consumption of various carbohydrate, and fat, in excess amount, leads to pre-diabetes. Certain markers in the body, such as Acanthosis nigricans, along with various other indicators, can help identify individuals with a genetic background or a family history of prediabetes. These multiple aspects aids in determining whether a patient may be at risk of developing prediabetes,” explains Dr. Saibal Chakravorty, Senior Consultant - Internal Medicine, Metro Hospitals & Heart Institute, Noida.

Obesity or increased body weight, sedentary lifestyle, lack of physical activity, and intake of excess amount of fat and carbohydrate contribute to a faster transition, says Dr Chakravorty.

Dr Chakravorty highlights the common mistakes one makes and recommends precautions for them.

He explains: Precautions are extremely necessary. It is essential to encourage everyone to go ahead with the physical activity on a daily basis, and restrict their diet to the calories that are required as per their BMI, you can consult A dietician who will calculate the exact calorific value of the diet which is required for your body to keep the sugars under control.

“Apart from weight management, avoiding smoking and alcohol consumption, getting plenty of sleep, monitoring blood sugar levels at regular intervals and regular checkups are some precautionary steps one can take,” he says.

“During regular health checkups, prediabetes can be detected at any age. The previous guideline of only checking blood sugar for individuals above 40 years old is no longer valid. It is now recommended that blood sugar testing be included in any comprehensive blood test, regardless of age. This precaution is necessary due to an increasing number of cases where blood sugar issues are observed at an early stage. Both type 1 and type 2 diabetes can occur in young individuals, and there is no specific age threshold for checking blood sugar levels. If there is a genetic predisposition (genotype) or observable traits (phenotype) that suggest the patient may have developed diabetes, blood sugar testing becomes essential for further evaluation,” he says.