Is prediabetes hereditary?

HI Everyone-
I am new to this forum. I am a bit concerned with my glucose levels as they were just recently very good and now they seem to be very high. I gave birth in January and had a physical in July and my fasting glucose was 91, which was high for me. I got concerned and bought a glucose monitor and began reading all the gloom and doom stories on the internet lol. Everything seemed fine post meal, never seeing readings above 116 (I would start testing at 1 hour) However, my mom has had a fasting glucose of around 105 for the past 3 years. One day she came over and asked to use mry meter as she had felt thirsty the day before and her fasting was 103. Her dr had told her to cut down on sugars but has not done more testing, which worries me. We don't have any history of diabetes in our family and she is 70 years old.
However, when she did this I decided to start testing my own numbers again (I had put down the meter for about 3-4 weeks) All of a sudden my numbers were no longer peaking at 116, they were now much higher. I did the bagel test and my peak was at 165 at 1 hour!! ANd I had a reading of 175 after a healthy but high carb lunch one day. (I am vegetarian and eat very healthy most of the time- whole grains and I stay away from refined sugar as much as possible-no soda etc) I got very concerned and called my dr and asked her for a hba1c and 1 hour glucose. My numbers are always back to normal by 2 hours so I figured a 3 hour test wasn't necessary. Unless it is a late peak I am always under 120 at 2 hours, and 99% of the time I am right around 100 at 2 hours (only if I had a really big meal with lots of carbs I might be around 110 at 2 hours post meal) Strangely, some things, like pizza, don't seem to spike me. I tested starting one hour after and tested every half hour for 5 hours and never got above 104. Very odd. I did test my mom once after eating a 6" subway sandwich on whole wheat and a small bag of chips and water. I had the same meal except mine was veggie. At one hour she was 101, and I was 165. That was the only time I tested her though.
Anyway, sorry for the long post but my question is - I was wondering since some say there is no such thing as pre-diabetes, does that mean since my mom has fasting of 105 that we have diabetes in our family and I am more at risk? I will also add that after taking the glucose test (which I am sure I failed) I realized that my birth control pills say a side effect is decreased glucose tolerance and it is one of the drugs listed that interfere with glucose tolerance tests. So I guess I won't really know if I have a problem until I stop taking them and test myself again, which I plan on doing. Hoping the hba1c will be somewhat accurate. By the way, had a one hour glucose in pregnancy and I was in the 90's at one hour. Fasting was 74 in the beginning of pregnancy, and 87 at the end, but my second fasting one was taken after fasting for only 4 hours during the day. Thanks in advance for any thoughts!

A little about me- I'm 37, bmi is 18.5 so I am thin, but don't exercise much. I am trying a little but have had a sore back since giving birth and have a torn meniscus that I will be having surgery for in november. Was on rest ALL of pregnancy so wasn't allowed to exercise at all, just a little walking here and there but even that was restricted at times. So I am pretty weak right now. Tryglycerides are 43, cholesterol and blood pressure very good. Eat healthy for an average person, but eat way too many carbs (mostly healthy carbs) for someone who has glucose intolerance.

Thank you so much Lanie!

My mom goes for her physical early next year and is going to ask to be tested. Could it be possible that she is not prediabetic even though she has a fasting of 105? If a hba1c and glucose test came out normal, would that mean that she is not having glucose issues, or does a high fasting mean she definitely has glucose issues regardless of other tests? Her one hour after a sandwich was very good at 101, but it was only one test. Maybe I missed her peak.

I am trying to be very careful about what I eat right now, and adding a lot more fat and protein into my diet to replace carbs, and exercising as much as I can with a bad knee. I chose not to do the full 3 hour glucose test because I know the 2 hour and 3 hour would come out very good and I was afraid my doctor would only look at those numbers. I tested myself at two hours after the glucose test and I was under 120 (I think I was 111) and at 3 hours I was back in low 90's. However I tested 10 minutes after she took my blood for the one hour and I was 175!! Yikes! I was given 50g(not sure what measurements they use) of glucose and in pregnancy you have to be under 140 at 1 hour, not sure if when you are not pregnant what the range is. However, I then realized that birth control interferes with the test as it can cause glucose intolerance- which may explain why my numbers seemed fine the first time I started testing 6 weeks ago (I had only been on them for a month) and the second time was worse as I was a month more into them.
I did try drinking 2T of apple cider vinegar before a bagel to test the theory that it keeps sugars down. It made me peak 20 minutes later than the usual 1 hour with a bagel. I peaked at 157 rather than 165, so maybe it helped a little but hard to tell. Of course at one hour I saw 120 and though it was a miracle cure, HA! It brought my fasting down to 82 when I took it before bed, but I am sometimes in the 80's anyway (always seem to be 88 the morning after eating pizza. Totally weird. It's the one junk food I eat once every week or 2. Maybe I should just give up health food and eat pizza every day ha ha!)

By the way, can losing muscle increase your fasting glucose? I lost quite a bit since before pregnancy.

Thank you for your insight and suggestions!! It's much appreciated!

Thanks again Lanie! I am going ot start some muscle building, at least for upper body while my knee recovers.

The blood sugar 101 site is where I learned that your one hour blood sugars should be under 140, where mine are not after a high carb meal (or at least some high carb meals) I get my blood results hopefully tomorrow so I will be sure to update! Unfortunately obsess is my middle name :( I'm sure I am the only person ever who sees a fasting of 91, has no risk factors whatsoever, and goes out and byes a glucometer. Oh well, better safe than sorry! Thanks again for the input!

Hi there. I know and understand more about the A1c than the GTT. As far as parameters for the A1c, you will find a very wide range that the medical profession suggests depending on who they are. Some doctors and even endocrinologists say they want diabetics to have 6.1 or lower. Other doctors may tell you up to 6.5 is fine. Yet a non-diabetic's A1c will almost always be in the 5's, even the low 5's or upper 4's. Most doctors have different goals for diabetics than for non-diabetics and don't feel we should even need to have a near normal A1c. Personally, I think that's nonsense.

Your 5.1 is excellent. If your blood sugar is really pretty stable and not all over the place, then that's great. However, if your blood sugar is spiking very high and also going very low at other times (which would average out to 5.1), I would be concerned. Maybe it's the medication that's causing the spikes and you would only know that if you're off it and then test again.

If I were you, I would not get too stressed over this though because it doesn't seem to be a major problem. You also wrote that you're thin and while that alone doesn't mean you can't be insulin resistant, it makes it more unlikely, especially when you wrote you weren't doing much exercise.

So, I guess if you get off that medication and take the GTT again, you might get a more accurate result. Were the average results of the GTT on that bloodsugar 101 website? I haven't looked it up lately but I'll look into it tomorrow as it's too late now.

(Marie, I moved your post that was alone and without a subject to this thread because I think you meant to post it here.)

I don't know how much your blood sugar is being affected by your being a little stressed when you're taking it.  That's hard to know.  Sometimes it's like blood pressure, you know?  Elevated in the doctor's office but lower at home on your own meter.  Also, it could be that the higher results are not accurate because of the normal range of error of the blood sugar meter.  It's hard to say what's going on exactly.

The best you can do is to keep monitoring it and keeping a log or journal with times, dates, when and what you ate along with the blood sugar readings.  Get a small spiral and have one page or two for each day.  You might see a trend.  Your doctor seems willing to work with you and is aware of your concern.  You've taken some tests, too, so rest assured that you're getting the attention needed at this time.  (I think, according to what you're writing.) 

If your readings start going higher or you're getting readings all over the place, you can show your journal to your doctor.  A specialist in diabetes and the whole endocrine system is an endocrinologist.  He or she has the most experience and understands how the blood sugar is affected and can order other tests if necessary.  If it's medication that's causing the strange results, then maybe it can be changed.