You’re diagnosed as a prediabetic because of high blood sugar levels by your doctor and your thoughts go to how you’re going to have to change everything you do and also take a bunch of medications to keep from becoming a type 2 diabetic.
Well, depending on your age this may or may not be true. If you’re younger than 65, yes, the concern does apply. However, if you’re 65 and older, the answer is now different.
Since the CDC found that 47% of Americans over 65 had blood sugar levels higher than normal, this was an important question to explore. And that’s what a recent study published in JAMA Internal Medicine looked into.
In the study, they had 3,400 older adults that were diagnosed with prediabetes. The researchers tracked everyone over the next 6 years, and they were surprised that only around 8 percent wound up developing type 2 diabetes.
The bottom line was that the researchers said that prediabetes is not a robust predictor of people progressing to diabetes in older adults.
Now, this doesn’t mean you can ignore what you eat and stop exercising, as you still don’t want to become one of the 8%. It does mean that if you or someone you know is 65 and over can basically stop worrying about getting type 2 diabetes. So…take a deep breath and enjoy life!
(Reported AARP Bulletin, April 2021)
No comments:
Post a Comment