Your fasting glucose levels indicate how well you're controlling your diabetes or pre-diabetes. While you can lower your fasting glucose level by taking medications, changing your diet and losing weight can often achieve the same results if you have Type 2 diabetes. Excess weight is one of the primary risk factors for Type 2 diabetes, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases states.
Overweight and Diabetes
A definite correlation between obesity and type 2 diabetes exists. People with Type 2 diabetes, previously called adult-onset diabetes, make up between 90 and 95 percent of all diabetics in the United States, according to New York-Presbyterian Hospital. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in 2004 that, based on data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, between 57.9 and 63 percent of people with diabetes were obese. Race and gender both affected the results. Morbid obesity, a body-mass index over 35, increases your risk of developing diabetes 38-fold, John Tayek, M.D. of Harbor-UCLA Medical Center reported in the February 2002 issue of "Diabetes Care," the magazine of the American Diabetes Association.
Pre-Diabetes
If you have a fasting blood glucose level between 100 and 125 mg/dL, you have pre-diabetes. If your fasting glucose exceeds 125 mg/dL, you have diabetes. Excess weight is one of the risk factors for pre-diabetes as well as diabetes; most people with pre-diabetes develop diabetes within 10 years, unless they lose 5 to 7 percent of their body weight and change their lifestyle, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases states.
Studies
Dr. Tayek reported on the effect of weight loss from gastric banding surgery on Type 2 diabetes in the February 2002 "Diabetes Care." All patients were severely obese, with a body mass index over 35 (a BMI of over 30 is considered obese). Within one year of surgery, 64 percent had remission of their diabetes and 26 percent had an improvement in their blood glucose levels. The incidence of newly diagnosed cases of diabetes in the group also fell from 19 percent to only 3.6 percent after eight years. In patients with abnormal fasting glucose levels, or pre-diabetes, levels improved in 89 percent at one year post-surgery and 100 percent at two years.
Considerations
If you have abnormal fasting glucose levels, you may have a higher risk of developing Type 2 diabetes within five years than a person who has impaired glucose tolerance, or an abnormal rise in blood glucose after eating, Dr. Tayek reports. Among Pima Indians, who have a high rate of Type 2 diabetes, 24 percent of those with impaired glucose tolerance developed diabetes within five years compared to 37 percent of those with elevated fasting glucose levels. Losing weight can help lower your fasting glucose levels and lowering your fasting glucose levels could help prevent the progression from pre-diabetes to diabetes.
References
- National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases; Insulin Resistance; October 2008
- "Diabetes Care"; Is Weight Loss a Cure for Type 2 Diabetes?; John A. Tayek, M.D.; February 2002
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity Among Adults with Diagnosed Diabetes --- United States, 1988--1994 and 1999--2002; November 2004
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