More than 80 Million Americans Could Be Affected By This Hidden Health Risk

At any given moment, you are likely in close proximity to someone with type 1 or 2 diabetes. After all, nearly one in 10 adults in America are living with these conditions—that’s more than nine percent of the population. But those staggering statistics only paint part of the picture: Another 84.1 million adults are living with a hidden health risk predisposing them to type 2 diabetes, the more common form of the disease.

These millions of men and women have prediabetes, meaning their blood sugar levels are higher than normal, but not yet high enough to be considered type 2 diabetes. If left untreated, prediabetes is very likely to progress to type 2 diabetes, a disease that can do long-term damage to the heart, blood vessels, and kidneys. Unfortunately, even though modifying your lifestyle is the key to keeping the condition from progressing, less than 12 percent of adults living with prediabetes even know they have it.

Why Prediabetes Can Be So Hazardous to Your Health

Whenever you eat, you increase the amount of glucose (or blood sugar) in your body. Your pancreas is responsible for producing a hormone called insulin that helps convert this sugar into energy. But if your body doesn’t make enough insulin, the glucose stays in your bloodstream, which may result in health problems like heart disease and stroke. Some people are born without the ability to make insulin; these people have type 1 diabetes. The more common form of the disease, however, is type 2 diabetes, which is more likely to occur in people who are physically inactive or overweight.

Prediabetes is a warning sign that type 2 diabetes could develop if the proper lifestyle measures aren’t put in place. But there’s good news: By taking simple steps to manage your health such as modifying your diet and increasing your exercise habits (with the help of your Fitbit device), you can stay healthy, motivated, and decrease your chances of being in harm’s way.

4 Ways to Help Keep Prediabetes from Becoming Type 2 Diabetes

The silver lining here is that type 2 diabetes is not an inevitable fate; with the right tweaks to your everyday habits, you can help reduce your risk of developing problems down the road. “Lifestyle modification is not only the first and best line of defense against the development of diabetes,” says Giovani Michieli, MD, a family medicine provider in Phoenix, AZ, “it’s also the foundation for the treatment and hopefully improvement of diabetes-related symptoms.”

Here are a few of the best ways to stay healthy:

Rethink your diet. Knowing which foods to eat and which ones to avoid can go a long way in reducing your diabetes (and prediabetes) risk. “Healthy eating habits are the most important part of diabetes management and control,” says Michieli. “We should think of food as medicine for our body. It can provide us our nutritional needs and help us stay healthy. Your diet can help control blood sugar levels.”

Experts recommend eating a diet that’s low in carbohydrates and rich in protein, healthy fats, and plenty of whole foods. To get there, it can help to track your macros (the amount of fats, proteins, and carbohydrates you eat). Not sure how to do that? The Fitbit app’s macro tracking feature is a great tool to get you started.

Fiber is another must for anyone trying to reduce their risk of getting type 2 diabetes. “Fiber helps you digest food, prevents abrupt swings in blood sugar, helps keep the colon healthy, and makes you feel full, so you eat less!” says Michieli. “I recommend a minimum of 25 grams for women and 38 grams for men every day, but there is no maximum. Fiber is your friend.”

Get moving and stay active. Exercise is a great go-to remedy for a long list of ailments, but it’s especially beneficial for anyone with prediabetes. Research shows that getting at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week (think heart-pumping activities like jogging and biking) can make a big difference in helping prevent type 2 diabetes. “A regular exercise regimen is important because it helps you increase your muscle mass, which will help you process sugar better,” say Michieli. “It will also help you decrease insulin resistance, which is a common problem in people predisposed to type 2 diabetes.” Make every step count by wearing your Fitbit device and logging workouts.

Know your numbers. Prediabetes generally doesn’t have any signs or symptoms. That’s why it’s so important to stay on top of your health and work with your doctor to get all the proper tests performed. According to one study, people with prediabetes who got their blood sugar levels back to normal, even just for a short time, were 56 percent more likely to avoid progressing to type 2 diabetes over the following six years. Michieli generally recommends his prediabetes patients receive blood tests every six months, unless they’re working on specific lifestyle changes, in which case he prefers to run lab work every three months so he can keep an eye on their progress (he doesn’t recommend home testing for people with prediabetes).

Lose weight in a healthy way if you need to. Along with making other lifestyle changes, losing at least five to 10 percent of your starting weight may help prevent or delay type 2 diabetes or even reverse prediabetes. Think of it this way: If you’re 200 pounds, dropping 10 to 20 pounds through healthier eating and more physical activity can make a significant difference. Michieli says this is one more reason to cut down on carbs: “A low-carb diet increases your metabolic rate so you burn more calories even at rest,” he says. “Even without counting calories, people eat less calories on a low-carbohydrate diet.” Here’s How to Go Low Carb the Healthy Way.