You're the boss in preventing Type 2 diabetes, chronic conditions
Health experts emphasize that lifestyle changes, specifically improved nutrition and regular exercise, are more effective than medication for managing prediabetes. The article warns that undiagnosed prediabetes significantly increases the risk of chronic conditions like heart disease and dementia.
Why it matters
With 115 million Americans affected, proactive lifestyle management is a critical public health strategy to prevent the onset of Type 2 diabetes.
Around 115 million Americans have prediabetes, which is characterized by chronically elevated glucose levels and increased levels of fat inside your cells. And while both are higher than normal and increase your risk of a raft of conditions, they're not yet in the "you've-got-diabetes" zone.
If that's you, you want to reverse your prediabetes, because it puts you at risk for full-blown Type 2 diabetes and a cascade of chronic conditions, including blindness, kidney failure, heart disease, stroke, dementia, and amputation of appendages.
Now, if you're lucky enough to know you have prediabetes -- 80% of folks go undiagnosed and untreated -- there's a good chance your doctor put you on metformin. It's Food and Drug Administration-approved for controlling prediabetes in folks younger than 60, with a BMI of 35 and higher and in women with a history of gestational diabetes. (These days, GLP-1s are prescribed to halt prediabetes, too.)
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