Three steps to determine if you fall into the risk group for diabetes.
While diabetes occurs in people of all ages and races, some groups have a higher risk for developing the disease than others, including: African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, and Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders, as well as seniors.
This means these groups are also at increased risk for developing prediabetes.
What is Prediabetes?
Before most people develop full-blown diabetes, they likely suffer from prediabetes, a condition in which blood sugar is higher than normal but not so high that an individual is considered diabetic.
People with prediabetes are at greater risk for heart disease, and as many as 65 percent of prediabetics go on to develop type 2 diabetes. The problem is that very few people know they have it.
There are three different tests your doctor can use to determine whether you have prediabetes:
The A1C test
The fasting plasma glucose test (FPG)
or the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT)
The blood glucose levels measured after these tests determine whether you have a normal metabolism, or whether you have prediabetes or diabetes.
If your blood glucose level is abnormal following the FPG, you have impaired fasting glucose (IFG); if your blood glucose level is abnormal following the OGTT, you have impaired glucose tolerance (IGT). Both are also known as prediabetes.
For more on prediabetes, visit BlackDoctor.org.
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(Photo: Rick Gershon/Getty Images)
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