Prediabetes Significance

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Anchor lead: A new study suggests quite a few people who look to be headed to develop diabetes may not, Elizabeth Tracey reports

Prediabetes refers to a host of conditions such as elevated blood markers that seem to point the way toward frank diabetes, but now a new study that breaks people with the condition down into several subgroups shows that although many will go on to develop diabetes, not all of them will. Rita Kalyani, a diabetes expert at Johns Hopkins, comments.

Kalyani: I think it’s absolutely true that in clinical practice we would tell any patient who has risk factors for diabetes and is obese to lose weight, to follow a healthy lifestyle, to do more exercise, perhaps meet with a dietician. What research studies such as this tell us though is that not all people who have prediabetes will necessarily convert at the same rate, nor will they convert at all to diabetes. Perhaps that’s something that we really need to be mindful of that we are still understanding who’s at highest risk of developing diabetes.  :34

Kalyani notes that healthier choices will benefit all aspects of health, including diabetes risk. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.