· CDE Mehandi Sharma
Just Told You Have Prediabetes?
Prediabetes means your blood glucose is higher than normal but not yet in the diabetes range. It is a warning with time attached, not a diagnosis of diabetes.
| HbA1c | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Below 5.7% | Normal |
| 5.7% to 6.4% | Prediabetes |
| 6.5% or above | Diabetes |
The first four things to do
- Confirm it. A single borderline result is worth repeating before you reorganise your life around it.
- Aim to lose 5 to 7% of your weight if you are carrying extra — the figure the evidence actually supports.
- Thirty minutes of activity, five days a week. This is the half of prevention people skip.
- Fix the plate ratio, not individual foods. Half vegetables, a quarter protein, a quarter grain.
What not to do is panic or dismiss it. Prediabetes is neither nothing nor inevitable progression — which is precisely why the response to it is a few sustained changes rather than a crisis.
Tell your family, too. Type 2 runs in families, and an Indian family with one prediabetes result usually has others who have never been tested.
The Knowledge Base has a full section on prediabetes, starting with neither panic nor denial.