Researchers Say Pre-diabetes Label Unnecessary

Researchers from University College London and the Mayo Clinic have raised a few valid concerns, if, they had done their research properly. Too often, other factors drive research and not the true nature of research. In this case, financial considerations seem to be front and center and studies were hand picked to fit the researcher's agenda.

While people may not agree with me, this article should be read and people making their own determinations. At least the World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that the use of 'pre-diabetes' is discouraged to avoid any stigma associated with the word diabetes and the fact that many people do not progress to diabetes as the term implies. Bold is my emphasis.

I do agree that the term pre-diabetes is a poor term and causes most people that do not understand diabetes to ignore what they could do to prevent the full onset of type 2 diabetes. The following statement bothers me and is what raised red flags for me. “The authors (of the study) showed that treatments to reduce blood sugar only delayed the onset of type 2 diabetes by a few years, and found no evidence of long-term health benefits.”

With the total absence of education by the medical profession and researchers world wide, it is small wonder that people that develop type 2 diabetes are not aware that full onset of diabetes could be delayed or prevented. These same doctors even laugh about how they will have patients to treat until they retire because people will progress to diabetes and then to the complications. This is a typical reaction by doctors that do not understand diabetes.

"Pre-diabetes is an artificial category with virtually zero clinical relevance," says lead author John S Yudkin, Emeritus Professor of Medicine at UCL. "There is no proven benefit of giving diabetes treatment drugs to people in this category before they develop diabetes, particularly since many of them would not go on to develop diabetes anyway. Sensibly, the WHO and NICE and the International Diabetes Federation do not recognize pre-diabetes at present but I am concerned about the rising influence of the term.”

While I doubt this study will do anything to cause action by the American Diabetes Association (ADA), we can hope that the ADA will make the readings above 99 mg/dl,

part of the diabetes spectrum. There can be serious complications developing in this area called pre-diabetes. These complications vary by individual and with most doctors ignoring pre-diabetes and declaring that nothing happens, more people will continue to develop complications.