It's easy to think that diabetes can happen to other people or only older folks — but never to you.
That's what many of the millions of people living with diabetes thought. And it's what the tens of millions of people with (often undiagnosed) prediabetes think now.
About 40 percent of Americans age 40 and older have elevated blood sugar levels. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases predicts that the United States is facing a diabetes epidemic.
The most common form is type 2 diabetes. It develops when the body doesn't produce enough insulin to keep blood sugar levels normal, or when the body is unable to properly use the insulin it does produce — a condition called insulin resistance.
Who is at risk
People who are over 45, overweight, and have a family history of diabetes are at greatest risk. African-Americans, Latinos and Native Americans are more prone to the disease.
Millions of people with prediabetes have metabolic syndrome, which includes obesity, low HDL (good) cholesterol, high triglycerides, and high blood pressure — a combination that elevates their risk for both diabetes and heart disease.
What prediabetics can do
According to the Diabetes Prevention Program study, they can reduce their risk of developing full-blown diabetes by 58 percent just by losing 5 to 10 percent of their body weight and getting 30 minutes of moderate exercise every day. Just working toward those goals can help.
Type 2 used to be called adult-onset diabetes, but kids as young as five are being diagnosed now, according to the International Diabetes Center in Minneapolis.
