The Battle of the Blood Sugar

Battle-of-Blood-Sugar-1Improve your life by reducing your risk for diabetes

If current trends continue, one of every three American adults will have diabetes by 2050, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Yet there's a lot we can do to reduce these numbers, said Zeba Ali, MD, Family Medicine Physician with Portage Medical Group.

Ali sees cases of diabetes and prediabetes each day and offers the following critical information about how to reduce your risk.

 

Q: What is pre-diabetes?
Ali: Prediabetes is a condition between diabetes and "normal" blood sugar. It's also sometimes called impaired glucose tolerance or impaired fasting glucose, depending on how it's tested. It means that you're at a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes, the most common kind.

Q: Does prediabetes mean that I'm definitely going to get diabetes?
Ali: No! That's the good news. It's reversible at this point. Prediabetes is like a warning signal. If you make positive changes, you can reduce your chances of developing diabetes. But prediabetes should be taken seriously. One major study by the Diabetes Prevention Program showed that about 11 percent of people with prediabetes developed type 2 diabetes each year during the average three years of follow-up.

Battle-of-Blood-Sugar-2Q: So what do I need to do if I'm prediabetic?
Ali: To prevent diabetes, you need to lose weight and become more active. Results show that if you lose roughly 7 percent of your body weight, you can convert your blood sugars back to normal. If that's overwhelming, know that losing even 10 or 15 pounds can have a healthy benefit.

Q: What if I'm prediabetic and I don't make changes?
Ali: Chances are good that you'll become diabetic and, at that point, it's irreversible. Yet, people with prediabetes who lose 5 to 7 percent of their body weight and get at least 150 minutes a week of moderate physical activity can reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 58 percent.

Q: Why is diabetes so bad?
Ali: Because diabetes affects the whole body and leads to other problems, including heart disease, stroke and nerve damage. A person with diabetes has a shorter life expectancy and about twice the risk of dying on any given day as a person of similar age without diabetes. Don't wait. Be tested and make positive changes to reduce your risk for diabetes or manage the condition.

To make an appointment with Dr. Ali, call 219.364.3700. Dr. Ali is a member of the medical staff at Porter.


Visit the Porter Health System website
Valparaiso Campus
814 LaPorte Avenue
Valparaiso, IN 46383
Phone: 219-263-4600