Transcription:
What is Pre-Diabetes and What Do You Need to Know?

Bill Klaproth (Host):  According to the CDC, as many as 29 million people in the US has diabetes with millions of US adults having prediabetes. So, how do you know if you are at risk for diabetes? What if you have it and don’t treat it and how can it be prevented? Let’s find our with Nahal Massoudi and Ana Mathew, Medical Students and Diabetes Prevention Program Instructors at Dignity Health. Nahal and Ana, thank you for your time. Nahal, let’s start with you. Diabetes risk has become a very common topic. Is it really something that we should be worried about?

Nahal Massoudi (Guest):  Yes, definitely it is something that we should be worried about. So, I’m sure that all of us know someone in our family member or friends who have been diagnosed with diabetes or has prediabetes. According to the CDC, over 30 million people in the United States have diabetes and about 25% of them don’t even know it. And the prevalence is only increasing. The data has also shown that 35% of Californian population has undiagnosed prediabetes. And seven percent of Californian adults already have diabetes. Even in children, they are being affected as well because of the steep rise in childhood obesity. So it’s definitely something that we need to become proactive about.

Host:  Absolutely. It’s kind of scary to hear about diabetes in children. So, Ana, let me turn to you. So, can you explain to us what is diabetes and who has prediabetes and who has diabetes?

Ana Mathew (Guest):  So, essentially diabetes is a condition when your body lose the ability to process and use the sugar and carbs that you are eating. So, then what happens is it just builds up in your blood stream and that’s when you get all kinds of complications. So, there are two kinds of diabetes that we are most familiar with. One and two and essentially the first one is genetic and the second one anyone can acquire. And that’s the most common kind of diabetes, unfortunately. So, anyone even as young as 12 years old can get diabetes type 2. So, we essentially group people who are diabetic versus prediabetic based on testing your blood sugar levels. So, we can test the blood sugar levels over a long period of time and we call that the hemoglobin A1C. That kind of tells us what’s been going on for a few months. And we can also test your blood sugar the day of.

So, for example, let’s say your A1C is between 5.7% and 6.4%, that would mean you are prediabetic. If it was less than 5.7%, then you would be in the healthy range and not be diabetic.

Host:  Got it. so, you mentioned type 1 and type 2 diabetes Ana. What are the risk factors? I know that Nahal said the obesity epidemic in our country is really creating this diabetes epidemic. What are the other risk factors, if I could just quickly get those from you for type 1 and type 2 diabetes?

Ana:  So, for type 1 diabetes; it’s more genetic. What happens is you are born with a pancreas that is unable to produce insulin or produce enough insulin and insulin is what helps us bring the sugar and carbs into our cells and use them. And with type 2, what ends up happening is your diet is one of the biggest contributors because of the fact that when you put too much sugar and carbs into your body; you body just does not have the capacity to process it. And overtime, your pancreas becomes tired essentially. So, an easy way to get rid of this excess that we have in our diet is to exercise. So, not exercising is also a really big contributing factor and other than that; it would be smoking. Tobacco use has been highly linked to diabetes type 2.

Host:  Wow, that’s really interesting. So, it sounds like type 2 diabetes is more of a lifestyle disease if you will, where type 1 is more hereditary or genetic in nature.

Ana:  Yes, definitely.

Host:  Yeah so you kind of control your own destiny at that point. So, Nahal, what if you are diagnosed with diabetes and decide not to get treated. What happens then?

Nahal:  Well unfortunately, there are a lot of things that can go wrong. There are some complications that can happen. Some of the most serious diabetic complications can involve the heart causing problems like heart attacks and heart failure. Patients can suffer from kidney diseases. They can get eye problems like vision loss, cataracts and glaucoma and also nerve damage. So, a lot of people will automatically think about foot amputations when they think about diabetes. And that’s really because of the nerve damage that’s a big problem in people diagnosed with diabetes. The nerve damage can cause loss of sensation and balance in the feet which means that it’s much easier to fall or get foot injuries that would not heal properly. And this is what really leads to things like amputation in diabetic patients.

Host:  Yes, that is something you don’t want and as you mentioned Nahal, there are a host of other conditions and issues that come with diabetes outside of amputation. So, man you want to stay away from this and speaking of staying away from this, you can help prevent diabetes. So, what can someone do Ana to avoid becoming a diabetic?

Ana:  Well the first thing they can do is make an appointment with their doctor and get tested. A lot of people don’t want to know their numbers in all honesty, but I think that is the most proactive thing that you can do instead of waiting for something to go wrong. So, other than that, the most important changes that make the biggest difference are improving what you eat and getting gin some exercise and I know it’s easier said than done; so it’s really helpful to have support like exercising with a friend or getting your family in on healthier food options. There are a lot of support programs like the one that we’d love to talk with you about. We have a Diabetes Prevention Program at Bakersfield Memorial Hospital. And it was designed by the CDC and it keeps this exactly in mind. It’s about the fact that we need to have long lasting sustainable lifestyle changes in order to avoid getting diabetes and reverse diabetes. And that requires some time and work.

Host:  You are so right about that. Just hearing you talk; I think I’m going to take a walk around the block after listening to you both. So, Ana and Nahal, thank you for your time. Last question then. Ana can you tell us about the Diabetes Prevention Program in Bakersfield?

Ana:  Okay so, it’s an inclusive year long program and we work on all the different physical, mental, dietary and emotional aspects that are going to go along with making better lifelong changes. And it’s free to the public. And it’s done by Bakersfield Memorial Hospital and it’s a CDC approved program. So, our goal is essentially to provide a positive environment because we know it’s not easy to make changes and to maintain them. And so we want to equip people with the knowledge and resources that they need to prevent this lifelong disease. Because prediabetes can be reversed but diabetes cannot.

Nahal:  Yeah and I want to add then that we will be having sessions every Wednesday at 6:00 p.m. in Founders Hall at Bakersfield Memorial Hospital. You don’t have to attend every single one to benefit from them and we will also be having sessions on different days at a different time to make it more convenient for our patients. For more information, you can call us at 567-393-3090 or you can also email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Host:  Ana and Nahal, thank you so much for sharing this important information with us and thank you very much for your time.

Nahal:  Thank you so much for having us.

Ana:  Thank you.

Host:  That’s Nahal Massoudi and Ana Mathew and for more information please visit www.dignityhealth.org/bakerfield/diabetes, that’s www.dignityhealth.org/bakersfield/diabetes. You can also call 567-393-3090. And if you like what you’ve heard, please share this podcast on your social channels and be sure to check out the full podcast library for topics of interest to you. This is Hello Healthy, a Dignity Health podcast. I’m Bill Klaproth. Thanks for listening.