I have a serious problem with the term “pre-diabetes.”
The prefix “pre” is used to describe what comes before something. In reality, “pre”-diabetes is actually AFTER or “post” 15 years of the high insulin levels & inflammation associated with the modern lifestyle. Prediabetes is usually diagnosed by checking an a1c level, which is the percentage of hemoglobin that binds to sugar as a percentage of normal hemoglobin.
If your a1c is between 5.7 and 6.4, you are considered to have “pre-diabetes.” To achieve this level of pre-diabetes, you must sustain enough carbohydrate/glycemic excursions & weight gain where your average glucose rises sufficiently above normal levels.
The a1c describes your speed, and when the doctor gives you the diagnosis of pre-diabetes, he is basically saying you are past your speed limit. But what we NOW know is that your engine has actually been redlining for years prior to this diagnosis. Fasting insulin levels consistently rise 10 years prior to a diabetes diagnosis, which demonstrates that your body is attempting to manage the damage from diet but it’s failing!
And this problem is A LOT WORSE than some slightly off-numbers on your lab work. The amount of heart damage and nerve damage seen in pre-diabetes is ASTOUNDING! More than 30% of patients newly diagnosed with diabetes also have neuropathy. In many cases, this longterm nerve damage develops over years. Countless patients in my clinic, receive CACs, or heart CAT scans upon starting our programs and the amount of results above 400 (which is severe coronary disease) is unbelievable!
Countless people in their 40s and early 50s are coming to me for the first time, finally trying to lose weight or sometimes they were sent to me after their primary doc found pre-diabetes/diabetes… and what we are finding is that the disease processes have already set in & often is very severe.
We have diagnosed, innumerable patients, with triple vessel (severe) cardiac disease in tandem with their “new” pre-diabetes or diabetes diagnosis.
The bottom line is this:
Medicine, in its current state, is reactionary. They react to a problem AFTER it occurs. They mistakenly call this disease “pre-diabetes”, it’s actually POST-diabetes. It’s POST 10-15 years of a disease process your body can no longer handle.
So here’s my advice for the average person:
1) talk to your doctor about a CAC
2) talk to your doctor about a CIMT
3) check a fasting insulin
4) get an NMR lipid panel
5) ask for a CGM
6) get a sleep study
7) and eat real food
8) eliminate stress as best as possible
9) take your health seriously
Your life depends on it.
Download the Toward Health App, which includes informative resources pertaining to the use and benefits of a CGM. Visit community.doctortro.com for premium access to a full curriculum on weight loss and diabetes prevention education.
