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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KennyA" data-source="post: 2731203" data-attributes="member: 517579">Hi and welcome.I don't actually accept there's such a thing as "pre-diabetes". The whole "diagnosis at 48" thing was set up around 2008 to provide a fallback - it was accepted internationally that what ever else happened (ie earlier diagnosis wasn't ruled out), T2 would be diagnosed by everyone if BG rose past 48. The problem with that is that in the UK at least, it's become a fact that T2 will only be diagnosed with a BG of 48 and above.Pre-diabetes had to be invented as a concept to cover the gap left when people's BG left normal levels (above 42ish, see graph) but before it rose to 48.This matters because it's known medically (see  Bilous and Donnelly, Handbook of Diabetes) that diabetic symptoms occur at lower BG levels. One of the reasons that 48 was selected as the fall back point was that serious retinopathy was relatively rare at BG levels below that. In other words, it is known that people did get retinopathy caused by elevated blood glucose levels, at levels under 48, but it was usually milder.In my case, I had a pretty full range of diabetes symptoms starting about as soon as my BG left normal levels, which I think happened around 2010.  I can't be sure because my medical records don't mention any BG levels from then. I started with oedema and weight gain, moved through kidney problems, bullae, "burning feet" neuropathy (I know my BG was 44 when that started in 2013/4), night sweats, blistering, cuts not healing, tissue paper skin, and more.I did go to the doctor, but was firmly told I didn't have diabetes as my blood glucose wasn't high enough.  I was on a range of medication to make my kidneys work, to stop the pain, that sort of thing.  In those days I knew next to nothing about diabetes and assumed that I was getting good advice.Roll forward to December 2019, and they tell me that actually I am now diabetic after all, because my BG had reached 50.  By April 2020 I had reduced that to 36 and almost all the symptoms had gone immediately (although I still have some greatly reduced things that are probably permanent damage).So the short answer is yes.  The formal diagnosis level doesn't mean much in terms of symptoms. People have diabetic symptoms, ie diabetes, at lower levels and can have no symptoms with much higher BGs.[edited to attach graph]</blockquote>

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