Am I Suffering From Diabetes? Posted: 10-23-07 04:38am
I am a 55 years old male. I have a history
of type 2 diabetes running in my family.
My weight is under control and I exercise
regularly. Four years ago my blood sugar
was 6.5 mg/dl and now I have brought it
down to 6.2 mg/dl. Indian doctors do not
consider me diabetic but a French doctor
says I have type 2 diabetes. Can you tell
me which out of this is correct? What
precautions should I take, other than
avoiding sugar? Is it possible to correct
my sugar level through diet and exercise?
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Venn
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 18 Oct 2007 Posts: 14
Posted: 10-23-07 07:21am
I think you mean 6.5 mmol/l. That's 117
mg/dl. mmol/l (millimoles per liter) is
used outside the USA, where milligrams per
deciliter is used.
6.5 mmol/l (117 mg/dl) is below the
diagnostic criteria for diabetes, which is
126 mg/dl.
Are you taking these readings after not
eating for 10+ hours? That's what's called
a fasting test.
If you're getting 6.5 mmol/l after
fasting, you don't technically have
diabetes, but you're very close. You have
to understanding the role of numbers, as
these run on a continuum. It's not like
you wake up one day and "have" diabetes
just because you hit a magic number. The
medical community however had to decide on
a number, and they made it 126 mg/dl or
7.0 mmol/l. Some doctors believe it
should be 7.5 mmol/l, and others believe
it should be 6.0 mmol/l! Indeed, before
1997, the diagnostic criteria for diabetes
was 140 mg/dl or 7.8 mmol/l, but it was
lowered. Further, your fasting numbers
will vary naturally over time just due
stress and other factors.
However, for your situation, you probably
do have a degraded metabolism. A truly
healthy fasting reading is at or under 99
mg/dl or 5.5 mmol/l. You should try to
decrease your carbohydrate intake some.
Normal weight is not enough-- you need to
not have belly fat! Belly fat is the
problem, not overall body weight.
Whatever your situation is, you are not
too far over a healthy number, so keep
researching and testing. Many people
don't realize that they have a problem
until their number is 10 or 12 mmol/l!
You are very lucky.
