Difference Between the Terms “Pre-Diabetic” and “Diabetic”

Video Transcription:

Hi, this is Elizabeth Hanawalt. And I'm a dietician, diabetes educator and I have had some questions about the differences between pre-diabetes and diabetes. And so I'm going to give you all just a smidge of what the differences are. So pre-diabetes is a term that's now used instead of borderline diabetes which means that somebody has got higher blood sugars and they should be, but they're not high enough to be diagnosed diabetic. So what what is normal?

What's normal blood sugar? Well, if you're A1C, it has been said that if you are a non-diabetic, your A1C would be below 5.6%, then that's that's normal. Once it gets to 5.6 and up, then you can categorize somebody as pre-diabetic. So in blood sugar terms, you don't want a blood sugar above one hundred and twenty five.

Now that has changed. And you might run into people that go, well, my doctor said it was 140. Well, it used to be 140. It's 125 now. So if you end up with a blood sugar of 137, then that could be, you know, a diagnosis of Type two diabetes. But if it's under 125, then you're you know, you're pre-diabetic. So what predisposes somebody to to to pre-diabetes? Well, one is having a first degree family member that has diabetes and then obesity, hypertension, you know, high lipid levels like high triglycerides, LDL, but like a low HDL, which is your good cholesterol.

Those are all signs that come along with being pre-diabetic.

It's kind of like blood pressure and that kind of sense. It's kind of silent and it can be going on and you don't even know it.  Ethnicities like Pacific Islanders, African, Latino - diabetes runs in those groups. Every race has a predominant disease and diabetes is in in those types of background.

So if you've got relatives in that background, then it's not that you have to get tested, but just be aware that at some point it be good for you to go get tests, such as like annual exams and things like that. That would be a good thing to do to make sure you do. Hypertension goes along with it. If you're a woman with polycystic ovarian syndrome, if you're physically active, that will do it, you know, help along with all of this.

And then if you're over 45 and you have any of those, you need to get a yearly check. Anyone with prediabetes needs to be checked. Pretty often, maybe once a year, twice a year to see that it hasn't gone to diabetes, you know, type two diabetes.  If people are on certain drugs, that can also lead to become an prediabetic from glucocorticoids, thiazide diuretics.

Some HIV medicines can cause it and a typical antipsychotics can cause it. So people with those kind of medications need to be tested once in a while.

So what do you do now? Is there anything you can do now? Let's say you go and you the doctor said, yeah, you're prediabetic. This is the time when you can do the most good, meaning weight loss, you know, getting active again, controlling your snacking, and substituting a lot of the saturated fat in your diet with unsaturated instead, because this is can also be a heart condition.

So if you lose weight, then that makes it easier for your body to to deal with the blood blood glucose that you've got. So it's basically diet and exercise. You know, we go back to that same thing again, but it actually is really true. As far as activity, any activity can can work, especially if you're not doing anything. But the general recommendation is to have at least 150 minutes of moderate activity a week. And and here's another thing to go along.

Caveat to go along with that. Don't skip two days and then, you know, bank it all up on the weekend. It's not going to do as well that way. If you can spread your your exercise out. That's the best you can do right there. So I hope that answers some of the questions. And if you have any more, get in touch!