Research shows the risk for many ailments and diabetes complications occur well before people reach diabetic blood sugar levels. Elevated blood sugars that have not yet reached ‘diabetic levels’, are associated with, among others …
- cardiovascular events
- dementia and Alzheimer’s
- neuropathy
The body was designed to maintain a very tight range of blood sugar levels. If our blood sugars exceed a certain level or if we consume foods that raise our blood sugars, our body will signal the pancreas to produce insulin, to remove the sugar from our bloodstream. You either have truly normal blood sugars, or you have abnormal blood sugars (diabetes).
My friend Karen Burdick wrote an excellent and impassioned piece on this topic and allowed me to share it in a post. Thank you Karen!
Prediabetes vs Diabetes
A rose by any other name…
When you first receive a diagnosis of diabetes, it is common to envision it as a NEW disease, but it is very, very important to realize that diabetes is the END RESULT of years of metabolic derangement.
Imagine this. You take a brand new rubber band and proceed to overstretch it repeatedly until it breaks. When it breaks, you don’t think: “that just broke out of nowhere, for no reason.” You recognize that the overstretching weakened the entire structure, causing it to fail. You can repeat this with the entire bag of rubber bands – the end result will always be the same, although some rubber bands will break faster, some slower, in different places, depending on a myriad of variables: temp in the room, consistency of stretching, minute differences during the manufacturing process….you get the idea.
PREDIABETES is that over-stretching period where all the damage is being done. Let me restate that. Your body will work OVERTIME, for YEARS, to combat impaired glucose tolerance, emerging insulin resistance, increased hormone-impairing belly fat, rising blood pressure, increasing cholesterol levels – until your pancreas finally throws up its exhausted hands and says, “I can’t do this anymore.” NOW you have diabetes!
If you are fortunate enough to receive a diagnosis of PREdiabetes, immediately remove the PRE from your mind. You have DIABETES. Once the body starts being unable to manage blood glucose levels, even a little bit, you have diabetes.
The medical industry does people a great disservice by having this shadowy sub-category of PRE….when your blood morphology first begins to change, they don’t say you have PRE-leukemia or PRE-anemia; you don’t have PRE-heart disease when your arteries are occluded less than 50%; you don’t have PRE-cancer when your tumor is under a certain size. Because these conditions can be LIFE-THREATENING, you receive PROACTIVE treatment. When I was told I had PREdiabetes 20 years ago, I was told: “No need to worry, we’ll just watch this for a few years, see if anything changes.” Clearly the opposite of proactive. Because my metabolic changes were still minor, they weren’t concerned, so I wasn’t concerned and ignored the situation. But isn’t diabetes life-threatening too?
Something needs to change, and that something is YOU because the medical/pharma industry is content with the status quo. It breaks my heart every time someone joins this group and says: “I JUST have PREdiabetes,” like somehow they don’t need to be quite as diligent, quite as serious about the changes they need to make, and certainly not aware of the damage that is being done. Wake up. I would give ANYTHING to be PRE-diabetic again, to make changes before my rubber band broke irrevocably. Certainly, I can MANAGE my diabetes on this WOE, and even REVERSE some of the damage diabetes has done to my body, but I can never CURE my diabetes. I have to fight hard every day to keep my blood sugars in the normal range.
So, please, now is your golden opportunity to realize that overstretching your rubber band WILL make it break. You, only YOU, have the power to PREVENT the end-result diagnosis of diabetes.
Now Is The Time
I could not agree more with this post.
If you do not have TRULY normal blood sugars… you are diabetic. If you have higher than ‘truly normal blood sugars’ you are experiencing cell damage. If you doubt me, read this post on my blood sugar targets and why I chose them. Now is the time to take action to prevent further damage.
The medical industry promotes high, harmful ranges as normal, I’ve posted numerous studies showing the damage that can come from maintaining harmful yet still ‘normal’ blood sugars according to the medical industry.
Do not be fooled.
Do NOT be a fool.
Take responsibility for your own health… I did. So did Karen and many many more.
You will be glad you did. :)
Thank you again KAREN!