Blood Glucose Levels
Being pre diabetic indicates that you are insulin resistant. Your body is having a difficult time using the insulin that is in your body. You do not have diabetes at this point, but it is a strong indicator that type 2 diabetes is not far away if the problem isn’t addressed. Pre diabetes symptoms are normally absent or either appear over the course of years. Testing your blood glucose level is the best way to determine if you are in good health, if you are suffering from pre diabetes, or perhaps diabetes.
Diabetes Test – Examining Blood Sugar Levels
There are four types of test which you can do to examine your blood sugar level. Some can be done at home by you or either administered by your PC doctor. These include the fasting plasma glucose test (FGP), the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), the hemoglobin A1c (A1c), and the Random Blood Sugar test. Each one is reliable in diagosing your condition, but the primary tests used to determine if you have pre diabetes is the fasting blood test or the oral glucose.
Fasting Plasma Glucose Test (FGP) also known as, fasting blood sugar test
This test measures your blood sugar when you have fast for at least 6 hours. It is usually the first choice for determining whether you have pre diabetes. It is administered with a glucose meter and provides real time blood sugar levels. A blood reading of 100-126 milligrams/ deciliter (mg/dl) is diagnosed as pre-diabetes and readings above 126 mg/dl is considered to be diabetes.
Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT)
Also used to diagnose pre diabetes or diabetes, it is a more complex test when compared to the aforementioned Fasting Plasma test. 8 hours of fasting is required prior to taking this examination. Blood is drawn for the first part. Afterwhich, you must drink 75 grams of a liquid glucose before having blood drawn again. Two hours must past after drinking the glucose before the second blood sample is drawn. It is a more detailed approach in determining if you have pre diabetes. A blood reading of 140-200 milligrams/ deciliter (mg/dl) is diagnosed as pre-diabetes and readings above 200 mg/dl is considered to be diabetes.
Glycated Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c or A1c)
A professional administered test, it reports your average blood glucose levels over a period of 2-3 months. Mostly use for diabetes patients, it helps the measure the overall management of the disease. If your A1c is 5.7% or less, then your blood is normal. However, if it is above 6.4% you are likely to be diagnosed with diabetes. As you can see, there is a small 0.7% window where pre diabetes takes place.
Random Blood Sugar Test
Similar to the FPG test, the random evaluate the sugar levels in the moment. What makes it different from the fasting test is that blood level readings are checked at any given time. There is no requirement to skip food and beverage intake.
If it is not treated in a reasonable period of time, high blood glucose levels can cause severe damage to body organs such as blood vessels, the heart, kidneys, and eyes. Nerve damage can develop as a result of elevated glucose levels also.