Prediabetes Can Develop Into Type 2 Diabetes: How to Reduce Your Risk

•    However, experts say that risk increases over time if a person with prediabetes doesn’t adopt lifestyle changes such as a healthier diet or a regular exercise program.
•    Experts say diet is usually the best place to start and changes should be made gradually.
Health professionals advise people diagnosed with prediabetesTrusted Source to alter their lifestyle by adopting a healthier diet and getting more exercise.
Experts also say these changes should be made sooner rather than later.
That’s because although prediabetes usually doesn’t initially progress to type 2 diabetes, prediabetes can develop into a more serious condition over time if action isn’t taken.
A recent studyTrusted Source published in JAMA Network Open looked at data from more than 50,000 older adults with prediabetes between January 2010 and December 2018.
Researchers reported that slightly more than 5 percent of these people per year developed type 2 diabetes.
Researchers looked at blood sugar levels over time. Levels of hemoglobin A1C of 5.7 percent to 6.4 percent after fasting for 8 hours indicated prediabetes.
Older adults with obesity were at greater risk of developing diabetes after prediabetes diagnosis as were older Black adults, low-income seniors, and those with a family history of diabetes. Older adults with blood sugar between 6 percent and 6.4 on the A1C range were also at higher risk. Men also had a slightly higher risk when compared to women.
Experts point out that those numbers increase the longer someone waits to address the issue. The initial diagnosis helps health professionals individualize a program.
“That is a very surprising number since 37 million adults in the United States have diabetes and roughly 20 percent of them don’t even know they have it, according to the CDC,” Dana Ellis Hunnes, Ph.D., RD, MPH, a senior clinical dietitian at UCLA Medical Center and assistant professor at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, told Healthline.
“Having diabetes is extremely expensive and can be highly debilitating, so, yes, anything someone can do to prevent going from prediabetes to diabetes is absolutely worth it,” Hunnes said. “Anything a person can do to improve their health will help them avoid polypharmacy, or other expensive and debilitating chronic diseases, including heart disease or stroke.”
“I would urge anyone with a diagnosis of prediabetes to make every effort they can to avoid a worsening of that into diabetes, or of their health in general,” she added.