“It was scary. Not life-threatening scary, but confusing scary. Almost apocalyptic due to shock and a bombard of information to assimilate” recounts Barbara Carleton, a quora contributor and diabetes survivor, on being diagnosed with diabetes. “I was super angry with regrets of ignoring early signs.” She remembers the dark cloud of anger that hang around and would sometimes rain confusion leaving her so froze she could not take action for fear of making things worse. Talk of once beaten twice shy, for her; there was no time to waste time!
Risk Factors for Prediabetes
According to Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, the following are major risk factors for prediabetes:
- Overweight: Poor diet and sedentary lifestyle (inactivity for more than 3 times a week)
- Age- 45 years or older
- Family history: Having a parent, brother, or sister with type 2 diabetes
- Ever having gestational diabetes (diabetes during pregnancy) or giving birth to a baby who weighed more than 9 pounds
- For women- polycystic ovary syndrome incidence.
The major prediabetic signs
The 3 polys are the main signs of prediabetes
Polydipsia
Polydipsia is a medical term for excessive thirst. Signsmainlyinclude feeling thirsty all of the time or having a persistent dry mouth.
Polydipsia is caused by high blood glucose levels in persons with diabetes. When your blood glucose levels rise, your kidneys create more urine in an attempt to flush the excess glucose from your system.
In the meantime, your brain encourages you to drink more to replace the fluids your body is losing. This causes the acute thirst that is linked with diabetes. Source
Polyuria
Polyuria medical term to describe when you’re passing more urine than normal. Most people produce about 1–2 liters of urine per day (1 liter equals approximately 4 cups). Polyuria is characterized by the production of more than 3 liters of urine each day.
During instances of excess glucose in blood, your body tries to excrete some of the glucose through urination. This causes your kidneys to filter out more water, resulting in a greater desire to urinate. Source
Read more:
Diabetes: Definition, Signs, Symptoms, and pathophysiology
Commonn Diabetes Tests on Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (cdc.gov).
Polyphagia
Excessive hunger is medically referred to as polyphagia. Although we all experience an increase in hunger in certain conditions, such as after exercise or when we haven’t eaten in a while, it can also be an indication of a more serious underlying problem.
In diabetics glucose cannot enter cells and be used for energy. Due to low insulin levels or insulin resistance your body is unabale to convert glucose to energy, you will get extremely hungry.
After eating, the hunger associated with polyphagia does not go away. In fact, consuming more will just add to already high blood glucose levels in persons with uncontrolled diabetes. Source
The key to preventing pre-diabetes progressing to diabetes is managing the symptoms. The baseline control is pharmacological, exercise program and diet.
tenda Health 
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