Is pre diabetes always caused by lifestyle?

[Notnowbarnaby]

I’m slightly baffled. I’m just 40, my lifestyle is quite healthy, I exercise three times a week and walk a lot.
my diet is quite carb heavy but I don’t drink a lot of alcohol and don’t eat sweets.
Ive just been diagnosed as prediabetic with a reading of 43.5.
I’m a bit concerned that it’s cropped up as a symptom of something else, ie issue with pancreas or thyroid, but I do have health anxiety and maybe I’m just being very naive about my diet?

is 40 young to find yourself in this position? I’ve also never smoked and my main vice is coffee!

yes I think there’s a good chance I think of my diet as being much better than it is. In the last few months I’ve definitely been eating way too many carbs.

the hidden sugars are what I’m going to struggle with, I don’t have a lot of time as it is and definitely don’t have time to regularly bake my own bread etc.
i do bake but when I can fit it in not really daily or anything like that

there’s nothing in my family history either.

I did see an interesting article that said infection can mess with your blood sugars and I just had my bloods done off the back of Covid, but nothing was flagged for infection on the results.

im going to have to read up and rethink my diet.
its also made me think about family diet as a whole we’ve definitely slipped into too many packaged and processed foods.

Inflammation often goes hand in hand with diabetes.

I use monk sugar for every day baking but do now have times like Xmas where I eat what I want (within reason). My BG is good enough to allow this but in the beginning I was very strict.

Can be caused by PcOS. Mine was.

Just be careful what you read. There are websites like diabetes.co.uk which are just a front for selling low carb diets.
Diabetes.org.uk (known as diabetes uk) is legitimate charity which has proper research and advocates for people with all types diabetes. https://www.diabetes.org.uk/about-diabetes/type-2-diabetes/remission/how-to-go-into-remission-from-type-2-diabetes
Diabetes.org is the American version

It is not really about utting out carbs , it is eating the right carbs ie whokemeal pasta not white and mixing with fibre and fat to slow down the release of sugars

If you are Asian there can be a genetic disposition towards more body fat at the same weight as a European. If you had gestational diabetes you are more likely to develop diabetes later. I think you can be reasonably healthy and still develop pre-diabetes.

There is a strong genetic component to Type 2 but like all diseases you also need environmental triggers to turn on the genes causing it. Stress, a bit of extra weight etc

With type 2 you ideally want to put it into remission as long as possible. Getting it in retirement years is more a natural part of ageing. So 40 is young, 65 is not.

I had gestational diabetes & had every meal monitored for its impact on my blood sugars. After a bit of trial and error it was possible to eat a fairly normal diet without baking your own bread, forgoing ketchup etc.

Look into the fasting mimicking diet / Fast 800 / DIRECT trial which is an NHS adopted method of T2 management & was funded by Diabetes UK.

https://www.england.nhs.uk/diabetes/treatment-care/diabetes-remission/

https://www.diabetes.org.uk/about-us/news-and-views/weight-loss-can-put-type-2-diabetes-remission-least-five-years-reveal-latest-findings

Have a look at the Glucose Goddess hacks that can help reduce sugar spikes. Also worth watching the documentary Fat Fiction and Fat: A Documentary (both free on YouTube) that shows how the food industry inverted the food pyramid to the detriment of health.

It does sound like you need to have a look at your diet OP and try to learn a bit more about nutrition. Some people are more susceptible to these things than others and maybe you are just unlucky.

Don't forget that carbs are basically sugars so that will be having an impact too. You will definitely need to lower the carbs but don't cut them out entirely - it doesn't help to be overly restrictive either. You need balance and if you can make small changes, it will really help.

I've been prediabetic for 5 years - not overweight (BMI 22). My Dad had type 2 diabetes, and wasn't particularly overweight.

I tested my blood sugars quite a bit in the early days, and found that eating wholemeal pasta/ sourdough bread/ wholegrain rice etc all made my blood sugar spike just as much as their white flour equivalents.

Also be careful with eating any high protein 'health' bars - this type of thing sets blood sugar off the scale.

Everyone is different though and you might be okay with some carbs.

That doesnt make any medical wse. Hba1c is a measure of glycosolated red blood cells, it indicates the amount of excess sugar floating round the blood in the previous 3m (as that's how long a red blood cell lives for.)

Its used to monitor diabetic control and more recently diagnose. It can be relatively acutely altered by a recent bad diet, I had a patient recently that's diabetic control was relatively OK when seen in preop, on the day of surgery it was sky high and I had to cancel him, on questioning he said he'd just come back from his home country and "been very naughty" with his diet lol and it showed

Op there's a strong hereditary element to it.

T2 is fairly well correlated to bring overweight. To the point that any diabetic we do bariatric surgery on, they immediately get taken off their meds as the drastic weight loss will cure them

To whoever mentioned their 90yo dad I really really wouldn't bother, the control is for long term benefits and prevention of complications and hence I'd just let him enjoy life. My nans just been told she's prediabetic at 91 and offered diet courses, she replied "no I bloody well don't want that", after I'd finished laughing I 100% agreed with her

If you eat a lot of bread and want to make your own it probably takes me about 10mins to do. Bread maker, take the pan out, tare it on the weighing scales, add the 5 ingredients, click pan back in press go. Bread done in 3h and no preservatives or unwanted stuff in it

Ask your gp to refer you to a diabetes dietician session they're really helpful

If you want very straight forward diet advice take a look at Eric Westman on YouTube. And if you want to learn more about how diabetes develops watch Ben Bikman, or read his book 'Why we get sick'.

@Notnowbarnaby I'd also suggest that you have a read of the Fast800 website. This approach was developed based on work done by Newcastle University, to deal with T2 diabetes.

If you’re overweight and carrying fat around your middle this is not surprising.

If your diet is carb heavy, then you need to cut way back on carbs (refined, fruit, starchy vegetables etc…). Increase your protein intake and your healthy fat intake. Make your meals around leafy vegetables and protein.

Are you stressed? Cortisol plays a role in insulin resistance. As does perimenopause/menopause, women become more insulin sensitive around this time.

What time of exercise are you doing? Walks/yoga don’t count. You need to build muscle. Muscles is the biggest insulin sink in the body. The more you have, the better you are at insulin regulation.

@Hermione101

Walks/yoga don’t count.

I would think that depends very much on the types of walks or yoga you are doing.

I really wouldnt trust youtube for something like this.

It makes perfect sense if you Google 'Can Levothryroxine affect blood sugar levels?'.

I didn't realise that about levothyroxine, though DH and I have been on it for years

levothyroxine can raise blood sugar levels

https://www.nhs.uk/medicines/levothyroxine/

...A bit of further searching and reading suggests it's quite a complicated interaction. Interesting stuff.

I was diagnosed with pre-diabetes in August. GP put me on a pre-diabetes course that looks at triggers and adjustments that should be made - ask if there's one near you, I understand there are lots UK wide.

Main things to address at diet, exercise, stress and sleep, and hopefully diet and exercise will reduce weight issues. Have been told carbs shouldn't be more than 25% of a meal and should be wholewheat, granary break, pasta, basmati or brown rice which provide a lower sugar release. Even if you're fairly active, activity needs to be increased. Apparently sleep is a large factor for many.

I really don't need to loose weight, but am eating much less carbs, stopped eating normal chocolate, just the odd piece of 85% chocolate. Increased exercise and no screen time 90 mins before bed to help with sleep.

Oh my God I had no idea about this. My doctor has been absolutely no help at all.

Yes, I joined a FB group for hypothyroidism sufferers and quite a few received test results that said they were pre-diabetic, until they got their dosage under control.

Also a bit worrying that @Destiny123 doesn't know this as a doctor.

I’ve been on thyroxine for years and years at the same dose .