This type of people is most likely to develop diabetes within the next 10 years. Click to see if you are one of them.

Author: Li Guangwei, Chief Physician, Fuwai Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences

Vice Chairman of the Chinese Medical Association Endocrinology Society

Reviewer: Zhang Yu, researcher at Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention

Many patients with diabetes think that they don’t need treatment if they are not feeling well. Especially in the early stages of diabetes, they often get hungry and eat their favorite foods. They also think that delicious food is worth living and that life is very happy.

But in fact, behind this happiness lies a huge disaster - various complications of diabetes.

1. What are the chronic complications of diabetes?

We often say that diabetes is not terrible, but its complications are terrible. One of the important reasons for the formation of diabetic complications is poor blood sugar control. Long-term high blood sugar will lead to lesions in various organs from head to toe.

For example, the incidence of cerebrovascular diseases, cerebral thrombosis and cerebral hemorrhage is two to four times higher than that of the normal population.

It can also damage the eyes, and diabetes is one of the leading causes of blindness.

In addition, the incidence rate of coronary heart disease and angina pectoris is two to four times higher than that of the normal population.

There is also kidney disease. Among the current patients with uremia, most of them are caused by diabetes.

There are also peripheral neuropathy, diabetic foot, etc. Such risks are also significantly higher than those of non-diabetic people.

Figure 1 Original copyright image, no permission to reprint

At present, many people have not yet realized the harm of diabetes, so they have not made up their minds to actively prevent and control it. When clinical lesions have already occurred, it will be impossible to restore the body to its previous completely healthy state.

2. Who is most likely to get diabetes?

We all know that people who are obese, have high blood pressure, high blood lipids, etc. are all at high risk of diabetes. So which of them is most likely to develop diabetes?

This brings us to the concept of prediabetes. According to statistics, nearly 36% of adults in my country are in the prediabetes state. If no intervention is taken, 6-7 out of every 10 people with prediabetes will develop into diabetes within 10 years.

What exactly is prediabetes?

The normal value of fasting blood sugar should be less than 6.1mmol/L. After taking 75 grams of glucose, the normal value of blood sugar 2 hours later is less than 7.8mmol/L. In short, if the fasting blood sugar exceeds 7.0mmol/L, or the blood sugar 2 hours after the glucose load test exceeds 11.1mmol/L, it is diabetes.

Then the blood sugar value between the two, fasting blood sugar is 6.1-6.9mmol/L, and the 2-hour blood sugar of the glucose load test is equal to or greater than 7.8, but lower than 11.1mmol/L, is considered to be prediabetes.

If these people actively engage in lifestyle interventions, they can avoid developing diabetes to the greatest extent possible, or delay the onset of diabetes.

3. How can people with prediabetes prevent diabetes?

The famous "Daqing Diabetes Prevention Study" shows that if people with prediabetes adhere to lifestyle intervention in the first 6 years, actively adjust their living habits, control their diet, and insist on exercising, 56% of them will not develop diabetes within 6 years, and about 30% of them will still not develop diabetes after 14 years.

How to do it specifically? Professor Li Guangwei, a key member of the “Daqing Research”, gave a simple summary: “500111”.

① Exercise for half an hour every day, 5 days a week

② Do not drink sweet drinks (0)

③No food intake after dinner (0)

④ Fat people should eat 1 liang less rice per meal

⑤At least 1 catties of vegetables per day

⑥ Eat out at most once a week

In fact, this "500111" principle is not only applicable to people with prediabetes, but also to ordinary people like us. Always pay attention to your health and maintain a good lifestyle. In addition to preventing diabetes, it can also play a good preventive role for other diseases.

4. What special attention should people with prediabetes who want to lose weight pay to when exercising?

The most important thing is persistence. It is useless to do it in a half-hearted way.

In addition, exercise must maintain a certain intensity. If you want to lose weight, you have to sweat profusely during exercise, such as running a marathon, but you must pay attention to safety.

For some people, strenuous exercise is unsafe. For example, for people with heart disease, lifting barbells is not safe. Therefore, before deciding to exercise, diabetic patients should first evaluate what kind of exercise is safe. Walking is the safest, and jogging is also safe, but you should be careful about high-intensity exercise.

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Therefore, exercise itself is very particular. Before doing any exercise, you can ask your doctor to make an assessment to see if your heart and blood pressure can withstand it, and then choose a form of exercise that suits you.