When does pre-diabetes become diabetes (type 2)

I've been pre-diabetic for many years now. I'm a 27 year old female. I had lost 60 pounds last year, but this year I stopped dieting and gained some weight back, my eating habits aren't the healthiest. I'm still overweight and plan on going back on my diet very soon.

A part of me didn't think it could happen at my young age, and that it would turn into diabetes at a later age, 40+.

I'm just wondering if there are certain symptoms/signs to tell when my pre-diabetes has become full on diabetes. I could be worrying too much, I have generalized anxiety disorder as well.

Should I invest in those little blood sugar testers? Where it pricks your finger to test your blood, forgot what they were called! Would that be the best way to tell if I have diabetes? other than having a blood test from my PCP.

Good morning, Rachel! As Turtle said, being overweight messes with blood sugar and if that person has any relatives with diabetes, then there will be a tendency toward diabetes in any case.

First of all, what has your doctor told you? Have you had any fasting blood tests or the A1c? Do you know what any of your blood tests results are?

If your doctor prescribes a blood sugar meter, then you will be able to get the test strips with your insurance. If you're buying the meter on your own, then you can sometimes get free meters from the manufacturers but you'll be paying for the test strips on your own and that can be expensive. Or, you can buy WalMart's own brand, ReliOn, which is pretty inexpensive, including the test strips.

First and foremost, you need to know that carbs (anything made with flour, sugar, rice, potatoes, fruit) will make blood sugar very high if you cannot metabolize carbs normally. This is why diabetics and people with insulin resistance (this is diabetes, too, just another name) should not eat food that are high carbs.

If I were you, I would get an appointment with the doctor and talk about this. Actually, I'm wondering why the doctor hasn't address this and given you some guidance about testing your blood sugar and diet.

Can you write what you normally eat for meals? And can you write what your blood sugar tests have been? I'm glad you posted!

I'm speak as a person who has diabetes, not as a doctor, so I will always encourage you to talk to your doctor. Diabetes is on my mom's side of the family and I've had a tendency to gain weight very easily over the years. I'm 67 now. From what I've experienced and learned about myself is that unless I severely cut out carbs and exercise a lot regularly, I not only gain weight but my blood sugar is high. And my blood pressure became high in my 30's, made worse with pregnancy. And my cholesterol became high. I am insulin resistant and have always been but my elevated blood sugar results over the years into my 50's were only addressed like this: "Watch your diet. Eat a heart-healthy diet and exercise." The problems I have now are directly related to not knowing how to control this earlier in life but back in the 70's, we didn't know what we know now. And that is that a low-fat diet will make us gain weight because the food pyramid at that time had us eating mostly grains, even whole grains, and other carbs.

In any case, as far as eating, the best way to help yourself is to cut out eating so much bread and bread products, and that includes cereal, crackers, chips, pasta, etc. as well as corn, potatoes and rice. Unfortunately, we've been programmed to have a major carb as a large part of our meals: bread for sandwiches, rice, baked potatoes, pancakes, cakes, and so on. To keep our blood sugar from rising so high, we should eat a decent piece of protein (chicken, beef, fish) and fresh greens as in a salad, and a variety of vegetables: bell peppers, mushrooms, eggplant, asparagus, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower. Snacks of nuts and cheese, peanut butter and celery, cream cheese and celery are good. Unsweetened yogurt or yogurt with artificial sweetener is good.

A non-diabetic may be able to eat the 'old way' and not gain weight or have high blood sugar but I cannot, other diabetics cannot and you probably cannot from what you write here. The only way to know this is if you test your blood sugar right before you start eating and then about two hours afterwards.

Here is a website that will give you a lot of information about blood sugar. There is a search box on the right which you can use, too. www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/

It's important to get control of this early to avoid complications like heart disease, glaucoma, neuropathy, kidney disease and so on.