Lower Your Cholesterol Naturally

As its name implies, pre-diabetes is essentially a precursor to diabetes. People with pre-diabetes have blood glucose levels above those considered normal but not yet high enough to qualify as diabetic. This can be considered a gray zone between sickness and health.

Millions of Americans fall into the pre-diabetes category. And people with pre-diabetes already have a 50% higher risk of heart disease and stroke than those with normal blood glucose levels.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 57 million Americans 21 and older have the condition, roughly twice as many as have diabetes itself. Pre-diabetes is not only more common but also more treatable. If it’s diagnosed early, its ill effects can often be averted. In some cases, the condition can be cured.

Mild elevations in glucose levels cause no obvious symptoms but carry significant consequences: A persistent buildup of glucose in the body damages blood vessels and other tissues throughout the body.

Pre-diabetics are also far more likely to go on to develop full-blown diabetes. If left untreated, about 25% of individuals with pre-diabetes progress to diabetes within three to five years, and many more will develop the disease within a decade.

With appropriate treatment, however, individuals with pre-diabetes can prevent — or at least delay — their condition from worsening. Studies suggest that simple lifestyle changes are often enough to overcome insulin resistance and return blood glucose levels to normal.

Diabetes experts speculate that increasing activity levels and losing weight improve the body’s ability to respond to insulin and handle glucose. Just losing 5% to 7% of body weight appears to be sufficient. For a 220-pound man, that amounts to roughly 11 to 15 pounds; for a 160-pound woman, it’s eight to 11 pounds.

In a similar fashion increasing physical activity to 150 minutes a week of moderate exercise such as walking and biking will help to get one out of the gray zone of pre-diabetes.

In some cases medications might be needed, but natural solutions of dieting and exercise work for many pre-diabetics and keep them away from diabetes and the need to take insulin injections daily.