By: Dr. Anita Ramsetty
MIAMI – Lessons: How Should You Be Tested For Diabetes?
In our last issue we talked about who should be tested for diabetes, and you are probably still recovering from reading that long list. Like I wrote, overall the medical community is still doing a terrible job of finding diabetes early, so you need to take some of this matter into your own hands and ASK your doctor about it. The earlier it is found, the less likely you will suffer damage later on.
The next step is the actual testing and there are three ways to do this:
1)Fasting blood sugars—this is currently the most widely accepted way of screening for diabetes. In this test, you go to the lab after ATLEAST 8 hours without food or drink (except water) for a blood draw to check sugar levels. The results will fall into one of three levels:
Less than 5.5mg/dL (99mMol/L)normal
Between 5.56mg/dL (100mMol/L) to 6.94 mg/dL (125mMol/L)pre-diabetes
Over 6.95mg/dL( 125mMol/L) diabetes
2) After a glucose challenge, called an oral glucose tolerance test(OGTT)—all pregnant women out there know this test well because we use it to diagnose diabetes in pregnancy. In this case, you again have no food for atleast 8 hours, then go to the lab. They will draw one blood sample, then give you a bottle of sweet liquid to drink, then recheck your glucose again after two hours. The results again fall into three levels:
Less than 7.7mg/dL(140mMol/L)normal
Between 7.8mg/dL(140mMol/L) to 11.0 mg/dL (199 mMol/L)prediabetes
Over 11.1mg/dL( 200mMol/L)diabetes
3) Random blood sugar check—done any time of day after eating. You either have one of two results:
Blood sugar less than 11mg/dL( 200mMol/L)not diabetes
Blood sugar over 11.1mg/dL(200mMol/L)diabetes
As you can see, the first two tests can tell you if you have pre-diabetes, while the last test cannot. For this reason, the medical community as a whole prefers to use one of the top two tests for screening, because unless your blood sugars are sky high and definitely in the diabetes range, the last test usually leads to another test anyway. In some cases, if the fasting blood sugar shows pre-diabetes, your doctor may then do the glucose challenge as well.
I get this question alot: What is the point of diagnosing pre-diabetes? All you do is scare people!”
Well, if I scare someone into taking better care of themselves, then I think it was worth it(just my opinion). But actually the most important thing to know is that people who test as having ‘pre-diabetes’ have a high chance of developing full-blown diabetes within the next ten years—could be next year, could be 9 years from now, you do not know. But this is a warning that you are headed down a road that could cause a lot of trouble, and the time to try turning around is NOW.
Can you turn around pre-diabetes? YES!!! Next week we will talk more about pre-diabetes, and what you can do about it.
Until then, take care all!
Anita Ramsetty MD
Medical Director, Endocrine Care Group
www.endocrinehelp.com
[email protected]
