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One in three Americans has pre-diabetes. Eighty percent of them don’t know they have it.
Consumer Issues and Advice Columnist
One in three Americans has pre-diabetes. Eighty percent of them don’t know they have it.
Like many of you readers, my family descended on our home for Thanksgiving (actually arriving Tuesday, leaving on Saturday and Sunday), and beforehand my wife and I did some major shopping to feed our family of nine through the weekend. Besides turkey, stuffing, and vegetables, we also stockpiled breads, nuts, bacon, cheeses, pies, cookies, cookie mix, muffin mix, and other desserts, and also ate full Chinese meals, a collection of spicy dumplings, and, finally, a baked brie.
I always react to Thanksgiving with anxiety over consuming too many sweets and delicious, unhealthy foods and fear of the inevitable weight gain.
Add to that, a recent article on pre-diabetes (higher than normal blood sugar levels).
“Uh oh,” I thought, “am I in danger?”
I did some research and found out the following from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Mayo Clinic, and other sources — information that should influence consumer purchases and behavior entering Christmas feasting season:
• Facts: One in three Americans has pre-diabetes. 80 percent of them don’t know they have it.
More than 37 million Americans have diabetes (about 1 in 10), and approximately 90-to-95 percent have type 2 diabetes, the next stage, mostly affecting people over 45 (like me).
• Definitions: People with pre-diabetes don’t process sugar (glucose) properly.
In digesting food, sugar results, entering your bloodstream.
Your pancreas creates the hormone insulin, which allows sugar to enter your cells for use as energy.
In pre-diabetes, cells resist insulin, cutting cells’ fuel intake, and sugar accumulates in your bloodstream.
Your pancreas makes more insulin to get cells to accept sugar until it can’t keep up. Your blood sugar rises, leading to pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes. High blood sugar can cause heart disease, vision loss, kidney disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, stroke, and amputations (Yikes!)
• Symptoms: Symptoms can persist without being noticed: increased thirst and hunger, frequent nighttime urination, losing weight without trying, fatigue, blurred vision, numbness or tingling in feet or hands, very dry skin, sores that heal slowly, more infections than usual.
• Risk factors:
Being overweight: The more fatty tissue around your abdomen the more your cells resist insulin.
Waist: Men’s waists beyond 40 inches; Women’s waists beyond 35 inches.
Diet: Red meat, processed meat, sugary beverages, sugary desserts.
Inactivity: Less active, greater risk.
Age: Risk increases after 35.
Family history: Risk increases if a parent or sibling has type 2 diabetes.
Race, ethnicity: Blacks, Hispanics, American Indians, Asian Americans: more likely to develop pre-diabetes.
Sleep apnea: More risk of insulin resistance. If obese: higher risk of developing sleep apnea.
Tobacco smoke: Increases insulin resistance.
Also: High blood pressure, low HDL cholesterol, high HDL cholesterol, high triglycerides.
What to do:
• Take a blood test, Find your blood sugar level. If pre-diabetes, test regularly.
Ask your doctor how often to test, and your blood sugar level target. Keep a record.
Your doctor may prescribe insulin, other injectable medications, or oral diabetes medicines.
• Diet: Cut sugar, refined carbs and ultra-processed foods. Buy healty foods, which affect blood sugar less.
Now you know.
Reach out to Harlan and let him know your questions, issues, and concerns as a consumer; send him an email at harlan.levy@gmail.com
Consumer Issues and Advice Columnist
Harlan was a full-time reporter and columnist for the JI from August 1997 to September 2017, after which he has continued to write weekly Consumer Diary and Leave it to Levy advice columns. Harlan graduated from Princeton University and NYU School of Law.
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