Pre-diabetes: another thing to worry about

There’s a media campaign, initiated by the CDC, to make you worry about being “pre-diabetic.” The campaign has a website (https://doihaveprediabetes.org/) that includes a test to determine if you are either at “low risk” or “high risk” for getting diabetes. The test is easy and the user interface is good. It asks you questions about age, gender, race, whether you’ve been diagnosed with high blood pressure, whether you’re physically active, and so forth. I tried taking the test multiple times giving it different answers—specifically weight and the blood pressure question. If I told it my true weight and that I’d been diagnosed with high blood pressure (which I haven’t), the conclusion was that I was high risk. By leaving out the high blood pressure diagnosis, the conclusion was that I was at low risk.

Not everyone approves of this pre-diabetes awareness campaign. One doctor, for example, says that the test is an example of “medicalization,” that is, defining something previously considered normal as a disease that requires attention, monitoring, and treatment. Another says “…this campaign will make them [older people] feel sick.” Of course, I agree.

If you have checkups, you have probably had your blood glucose tested. According to the CDC, a reading that’s over 100mg/dL but less than 125, indicates that you are pre-diabetic. (But according to the World Health Organization a reading of over 110, not 100, makes you pre-diabetic.)

My husband, whose reading is 109, is considered pre-diabetic and has had this diagnosis for 20-or so years. The advice for pre-diabetic people is to “eat right and exercise.” While I am usually quite snarky about this sort of thing, including diagnoses of “pre” anything, we do take my husband’s blood glucose reading seriously because his family has a history of diabetes. We have been eating low carb meals for 20 to 30 years. For example, I think twice before adding a little rice to chicken soup. Toast for breakfast is a special Sunday treat. The CDC says that 15 to 30 percent of people with prediabetes progress to diabetes within five years. My husband is fine.

As a rule, I think that giving people a “pre” anything diagnosis just adds to over-medicalization. But I’ll admit to this one: we’re all pre-dead.

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