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Prediabetes
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Prediabetes is an in-between stage. Glucose, the sugar that travels in your blood and that your cells use for energy, is already higher than normal, but not yet high enough to be called type 2 diabetes. The amount of sugar in your blood is called your blood glucose.
To get from the blood into your cells, glucose needs insulin, a hormone made by the pancreas. Insulin works like a key that unlocks each cell. In prediabetes there's insulin resistance: cells in the muscles, fat, and liver don't respond well to that key, like a stiff lock that's hard to turn. The pancreas tries to make up for it by making more keys. When it can't keep up anymore, the extra glucose stays locked out in the blood, and the level goes up.
All of this usually goes on for years without the person feeling anything. Even so, prediabetes raises the risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke, which is damage to part of the brain when its blood supply is cut off. And it's not set in stone: not everyone with prediabetes goes on to develop type 2 diabetes.
In brief
In prediabetes, blood glucose (blood sugar) is higher than normal but not high enough for a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes.
Prediabetes involves insulin resistance: cells in the muscles, fat, and liver don't respond well to insulin. The pancreas makes more of it to compensate; when it can't keep up, extra glucose can't get into cells and blood glucose rises.
It usually causes no symptoms for years. It raises the risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke, but it doesn't always progress to type 2 diabetes.
Sources (2)
- National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), National Institutes of HealthInsulin Resistance & Prediabetes
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)Prediabetes: Your Chance to Prevent Type 2 DiabetesPublished
This page explains the topic in general terms; it does not tell anyone what treatment to follow.
Updated