Research finds that people with prediabetes can reduce the risk of dying early – or developing diabetes-related health issues – if they can avoid full-blown type 2 diabetes for four years.

Prediabetes is when blood glucose levels are higher than normal. But they’re not high enough to warrant a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes.

According to the federal government’s health advice if you have pre-diabetes, you are at 10 to 20 times greater risk of going on to develop type 2 diabetes.

According to Healthline, long-term data suggests that lifestyle changes may decrease the risk of prediabetes progressing to diabetes for as long as 10 years.

A 2019 study showed that 5 to 15 per cent of prediabetes cases progress to diabetes every year.

It is possible to reverse prediabetes and return your blood sugar levels to normal.

It’s thought that between 15 per cent and 35 per cent of people with prediabetes are able to reverse their prediabetes.

But you need to work at it, with a committed change to how you live. This means adopting a healthy diet, exercising and losing weight.

And most people simply cannot manage to make that change, not permanently anyway.

Even if you can’t manage to reverse prediabetes, it’s important to slow it down.

As the study found, if you can hold off developing type 2 diabetes, at least for a few years, you’re less likely to develop the worse effects of the disease.

That is, you’re less likely to end up with a foot chopped off, or developing blindness, or crippling neuropathy or dying early.

But there’s a problem

According to an article from Harvard Medical School, prediabetes is largely silent and typically doesn’t produce blatant symptoms that suggest you have developed prediabetes.

However, prediabetes carries the same risk factors as type 2 diabetes: Being overweight or obesity, chronic inactivity, and family history.

Persistent fatigue can be a clue.

You might notice you’re getting more infections – especially vaginal yeast infections.

“This can happen in women with prediabetes whose blood sugar spikes after meals – perhaps several times a day – but whose fasting glucose levels stay within normal limits,” Harvard advises.

Also, after eating larger meals, “some people with prediabetes also experience repeated urination or blurry vision”.

Harvard says these signs “are related to temporarily surging blood sugar levels”.

They also happen to “mirror full-blown diabetes symptoms, but on a smaller scale”.

Don’t want to go to the doctor for a check-up? Worried you might spend money unnecessarily?

Probably the simplest way to protect yourself, outside of a complete lifestyle makeover, is investing in a blood sugar testing kit.

Once you see your blood sugar levels creeping up, you’ll have a good reason to seek medical advice.

The new study

Making a permanent lifestyle change is clearly impossible for many people. But four years is more doable, at least for some people.

According to a statement from PLOS Medicine, which published the research: The study involved 540 prediabetic participants in a six-year trial conducted in Daqing in China, starting in 1986.

Participants were assigned to a control group or one of three lifestyle interventions: Following a healthy diet, getting more exercise, or both.

The trial followed up with participants for more than 30 years.

The researchers established the long-term risk of death, cardiovascular events – like heart attack, stroke or heart failure – and other diabetes-related complications for the trial participants.

Participants who remained non-diabetic for at least four years after diagnosis had a significantly lower risk of dying. They also had a significantly lower risk of a cardiovascular event.

This protective effect was not observed in individuals who remained non-diabetic for less than the “four-year threshold”.

Overall, the analysis suggests that the longer a prediabetic person can delay developing diabetes, the better their long-term health outcomes will be.

– TND