When you’re busy enjoying life, it’s tough to resist that extra-large cinnamon bun. As humans, we share an affinity for sugar.
We feel a pleasant surge of energy when sugar — and other carbohydrates, like pasta, that break down into glucose — enter our bloodstream. And, in moderation, sugar’s not necessarily bad for us:
- Sugar that occurs naturally in certain foods, like fruit or milk, boosts our energy levels.
- However, we need to exercise caution when eating foods containing added sugars, such as pre-packaged items, desserts, and soda.
If you ingest a lot of added sugars year after year, your doctor may suddenly inform you that you have prediabetes, the precursor to type 2 diabetes. In the state of Indiana, 33.5% of the adult population (over 1.7 million people) are prediabetic, mirroring its incidence overall in the U.S.
What exactly is prediabetes? Is it cause for alarm? And can we learn how to reverse prediabetes when it occurs?
Prediabetes: Slowly Climbing the Mountain
The pancreas generates insulin to help process the sugars we ingest. If you routinely overconsume simple sugars, carbs, and calories — in the form of desserts, breads, pasta, rice, and potatoes — your pancreas weakens, becoming less and less able to handle the load.
Your metabolism gradually becomes disordered: the body either doesn’t make enough insulin or doesn’t use it well, so an excess of glucose stays in the blood. This results first in prediabetes — and ultimately, if unchecked, in type 2 diabetes.
In prediabetes, blood glucose levels are elevated but not yet high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes. Prediabetes is like slowly climbing a mountain — you can climb for years without losing any critical functions. It’s also 100% reversible — you can turn around and take yourself down the mountain again.
But if you don’t find out how to reverse prediabetes, you approach a dangerous precipice. And when you fall off the mountain, that’s full-blown diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes is a serious condition caused by excess glucose. Your pancreas can no longer keep up and needs help in the form of oral medications first and, if severe, even insulin. (This area of medicine is evolving, and research continues through cell therapy and other approaches.)
How to Reverse Prediabetes
Wondering how to reverse prediabetes or improve your blood sugar and overall health with type 2 diabetes?
Set your expectations, depending on how far up that “mountain” you are. Understand that it took you a while to get to that place, and it will likely take that long to return to normal.
Your Priority Physicians can help you follow these steps:
- Know your blood sugar numbers, and stay aware of how changes can impact you. Excess sugar in your blood vessels may affect blood flow, vision, or kidney and brain function. At Priority Physicians, we regularly track our patients’ A1C numbers, which measure blood sugar levels over the prior two or three months.
- Redefine your understanding of a “normal” eating pattern. Improve your diet by consuming fewer calories, sugars, and carbs.
- Focus on weight loss, eliminating metabolically active adipose (fat) cells that compound the effects of diabetes.
- Keep weight off and build muscle through resistance exercise, which encourages you to consume more protein, fewer carbs, and less sugar. Adding more protein to your diet reduces food cravings. Plus, the more muscle you have, the better your body handles blood sugar.
We’re Here to Help
If you’re diagnosed with prediabetes, take heart: You still have time to regulate your insulin and sugar. Learning how to reverse prediabetes and reduce sugar levels can be a slow process, but you will progress.
Your Priority Physicians monitor your numbers, keep you apprised, and work with you to reduce excess sugar levels. We’ve got plenty of experience and advice on how to reverse prediabetes. Let’s chat soon.
