There are 19 million people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in
the United States. Roughly 7 million remain undiagnosed. But did
you know that there are 79 million who have prediabetes?1 Before
people develop type 2 diabetes they almost always have
“prediabetes”—blood glucose levels that are higher than normal
but not yet high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes. Recent
research has shown that some long-term damage to the body,
especially the heart and the circulatory system, may already be
occurring during prediabetes. Prediabetes is a serious medical
condition. The good news, however, is that it can be treated and
a recently completed Diabetes Prevention Program (“DPP”) study
conclusively showed that people with prediabetes can prevent the
development of type 2 diabetes by making changes in their diet
and increasing their level of physical activity. They may even
be able to return their blood glucose levels to normal range.
While the DPP also showed that some medications may delay the
development of diabetes,