Diabetes is “a condition that impairs the body’s ability to process blood glucose, otherwise known as blood sugar.” If one is prediabetic then he/she has time to make necessary and needed changes before he/she is diagnosed with diabetes. Such a condition puts many at risk because it “can lead to serious complications which can affect many different parts of your body. In the worst cases, diabetes can kill you. Each week diabetes causes thousands of complications like stroke, amputation, kidney failure, heart attack, and heart failure.”
That’s why it’s important that one is careful because some may not even experience anything and be asymptomatic instead. Asymptomatic is “(of a condition or a person) producing or showing no symptoms.” Fortunately, the tests for diabetes don’t allow certain things to go unnoticed because they can pick up on whether someone’s levels aren’t where they need to be. Two examples of how this can be determined is through a “fasting sugar blood test” and an “A1C blood test”.
The first one is “performed after you have had nothing to eat or drink for at least eight hours.” Once the time is up, and the test can be taken, one in the medical profession can better determine whether his/her patient’s blood sugar is in the place where it needs to be. The second one measures glycated hemoglobin. The results of this test – and/or whatever level the person’s A1C is at – serve as the determining factor. For example, “an A1C level below 5.7 percent is considered normal. An A1C between 5.7 and 6.4 percent signals prediabetes. Type 2 diabetes is diagnosed when the A1C is over 6.5 percent.”
After the test results have been determined, one may make certain changes to maintain his/her diabetes if he/she has it or to prevent himself/herself from getting it. Some ways that this can be done is by “cutting sugar and refined carbs from your diet, working out regularly, drinking water as your primary beverage, losing weight if you’re overweight or obese, quit smoking, following a very-low-carb diet, watching portion sizes, avoiding sedentary behaviors, eating a high-fiber diet, optimizing vitamin D levels, minimizing your intake of processed foods,” etc. Making these changes will have a beneficial influence on not just your diabetes, but your overall health as well. You will then begin to see results as your body begins to regulate for the better, making for a happier and healthier you.