It's scary to find out you have a life-threatening disease like diabetes. But now, doctors can diagnose prediseases — early versions of dangerous conditions — so that you can beat them back before they take hold. One in three Americans has a predisease, but since they generally cause few, if any, symptoms, detection is crucial. What you need to know:
More than 50 million American adults have prediabetes — defined as a fasting blood glucose level between 100 and 125. You're more likely to have it if you've gained more than 11 pounds since your 18th birthday, you rarely work out, you have a family history of diabetes, and/or you've had gestational diabetes.
- Why it's risky: There's a 30 percent chance that within three years of being diagnosed with prediabetes you'll develop diabetes — a disease that occurs when cells can't properly use the hormone insulin to transport sugar through the blood — which can damage virtually every organ in the body.
- What to do: You can reduce your risk of progressing to diabetes by more than half by dropping 7 percent of your body weight, no matter what you weigh (if you're 170 pounds, say, that means losing 12 pounds). Also, if you add two-and-a-half hours of moderate-intensity exercise a week, plus keep fat calories to 25 percent of your daily intake, your diabetes risk practically disappears.
A blood pressure reading said to be "normal" less than five years ago — a top number from 120 to 139 or a bottom one from 80 to 89 — is now considered prehypertension, says William J. Elliott, M.D., a professor of preventive medicine at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.This condition affects one out of three American adults.
- Why it's risky: You have up to a 37 percent chance of progressing to hypertension, or high blood pressure, within four years of being diagnosed with prehypertension. Having high blood pressure at age 40 puts you at a threefold risk of dying from a heart attack compared with a woman with a healthy reading.
- What to do: Limit sodium intake to 2,400 mg or less daily by sticking to fresh and/or low-sodium foods. This not only lowers your odds of developing hypertension but also cuts your risk of having a heart attack by 25 percent. Losing 15 pounds over four years or less will also reduce your risk of high blood pressure.
This predisease occurs when the thyroid gland doesn't produce enough thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH). Symptoms include dry skin, fatigue, and unexplained weight gain — especially if they're new, says David Gardner, M.D., a professor of medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. If you think you may have this condition, ask your doctor to perform a blood test to check your TSH level. Though there's much debate in the medical community about what's normal, levels from about 3 or 4 to 10 may indicate subclinical hypothyroidism; a level higher than 10 means you have full-blown hypothyroidism.
- Why it's risky: Women with subclinical hypothyroidism are more likely than those with normal TSH levels to develop heart disease. They're also at higher risk of depression and infertility, and have a 3 percent to 20 percent chance of progressing to hypothyroidism, a life-threatening condition that can cause a drop in heart rate and lung function if untreated. If you're pregnant, having subclinical hypothyroidism may harm your baby's developing brain and increase your chances of premature delivery.
- What to do: "There are no definitive guidelines yet as to when to treat TSH levels that are above normal but below disease levels," says Gardner, who generally recommends a six-month trial of the hormone supplement levothyroxine if a woman's level is above 5 and/or if she's experiencing symptoms. Experts also suggest hormone treatment if you're pregnant or trying to conceive.