What is pre-diabetes?

Pre-diabetes is a medical condition that increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Pre-diabetes (also called “prediabetes”) can affect children, teens, adults, and seniors.

The term “pre” means “before” diabetes. Pre-diabetes is an early warning sign of serious disease risk including for type 2 diabetes.

Pre-diabetes effects insulin production and how the body metabolizes carbohydrates. A person with pre-diabetes may gain weight easily if they are insulin resistant, especially if they eat a high-carb diet.

Not everyone with pre-diabetes will develop full on-set type 2 diabetes, and not everyone with pre-diabetes is overweight. But left untreated, most people with pre-diabetes become diabetic within ten years after being diagnosed.

According to an article in Medscape CME:

Prediabetes refers to the intermediate metabolic states between normal and diabetic glucose homeostasis. It comprises of two distinct states, those of IFG and IGT or a combination of both but by itself is not diabetes.”