Pre-diabetes?

[Daz333]

Good morning all,

I’m looking for some advice on some recent blood glucose testing figures I’ve had recently.

I’m 41, male and weigh around 67kg (around 10-11 stone). I cycle regularly and run two or three times weekly. I’ve NOT been diagnosed with diabetes.

My father and grandmother both had diabetes and so I’ve always been mindful of my lifestyle and keeping an eye on things.

I have a blood test booked with my doctors next week, so that they can properly test me. However, in the meantime, I’ve been using a testing device (pin prick).

Over the last two mornings, my fasting glucose score has been 5.6. I understand this may be in the range of pre-diabetes? I also tested an hour after a meal the other evening and this was 7.0.

I will admit, I have a sweet tooth and do eat a fair amount of chocolate, biscuits, cakes etc. I don’t eat sweets or sugary drinks though.

I was very nervous when testing today and yesterday morning and so I don’t know if this would have increased my fasting glucose score.

Run for a local club and ran my first marathon around 6 months ago. I’m always training for one race or another and so I didn’t feel as bad for eating some treats during the day, because I felt that I was constantly burning it off.

Are my concerns genuine, or is 5.6 as a fasting score actually not that bad? I’m kind of going out of my mind a little bit with worry, so thought I’d ask here for some advice.

Thank you.

 

[KennyA]

Good morning all,

I’m looking for some advice on some recent blood glucose testing figures I’ve had recently.

I’m 41, male and weigh around 67kg (around 10-11 stone). I cycle regularly and run two or three times weekly. I’ve NOT been diagnosed with diabetes.

My father and grandmother both had diabetes and so I’ve always been mindful of my lifestyle and keeping an eye on things.

I have a blood test booked with my doctors next week, so that they can properly test me. However, in the meantime, I’ve been using a testing device (pin prick).

Over the last two mornings, my fasting glucose score has been 5.6. I understand this may be in the range of pre-diabetes? I also tested an hour after a meal the other evening and this was 7.0.

I will admit, I have a sweet tooth and do eat a fair amount of chocolate, biscuits, cakes etc. I don’t eat sweets or sugary drinks though.

I was very nervous when testing today and yesterday morning and so I don’t know if this would have increased my fasting glucose score.

Run for a local club and ran my first marathon around 6 months ago. I’m always training for one race or another and so I didn’t feel as bad for eating some treats during the day, because I felt that I was constantly burning it off.

Are my concerns genuine, or is 5.6 as a fasting score actually not that bad? I’m kind of going out of my mind a little bit with worry, so thought I’d ask here for some advice.

Thank you.

You can't really assess overall blood glucose levels from a single fingerprick test. You might see something from a very high one-off figure - in the 20s for example - that might make you want to look further as to why. That's why the health systems use an HbA1c test that estimates your blood glucose levels over the past three months or so from glycated red blood cells. This is not the same as a fingerprick test.

Your results of 5.6mmol/l are however bang normal. Many people find that the morning readings are usually higher than what's seen the rest of the day - that's because our livers often add glucose in the mornings to refuel and get us going. Blood glucose goes up and down all the time, not only in response to food.

And the reading of 7.0 an hour after eating is also what you'd expect to see. Peak blood glucose after eating carbs usually occurs around 40-50 minutes after eating - by two hours your insulin response, if it's doing its job, should have returned your BG levels roughly to where you were before you ate. Those of us with T2 in general have insulin systems that aren't doing their jobs properly so we typically end up with higher BG levels for longer than non-diabetic folks. And it's high levels of blood glucose that over time damage nerves and capilliaries.

This study shows the glucose response of non-diabetic people to meals with various levels of carb:

Continuous Glucose Monitoring Profiles in Healthy Nondiabetic Participants: A Multicenter Prospective Study - PMC

Use of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) is increasing for insulin-requiring patients with diabetes. Although data on glycemic profiles of healthy, nondiabetic individuals exist for older sensors, assessment of glycemic metrics with new-generation ...

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Given that you have a family history of T2, I think you're wise to keep an eye on the possibility. Have the HbA1c test and see what your doctor says. But there's nothing in what you've said above that would make me think right now you have a problem or potential problem.