Individuals whose blood sugar is only slightly above normal face a much higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life.

In recent years, the World Health Organization and the American Diabetes Association have refined the classification of blood sugar levels to include impaired fasting glucose (IFG, blood sugar levels slightly above normal before eating) and impaired glucose tolerance (IGT, slightly higher than normal blood sugar levels 2 hours after a high-sugar test meal).

Normally, the hormone insulin is secreted after a meal to take sugar from the blood to cells throughout the body. But patients with type 2 diabetes do not respond to insulin. As a result, blood sugar can rise dangerously high, which, over time, can increase a person's risk of heart disease, kidney failure, limb amputations and blindness.

Although IGT was previously linked to type 2 diabetes later in life, little is known about the link, if any, between IFG, or the combination of IFG and IGT, and the development of type 2 diabetes.

Among more than 1,300 men and women studied for up to 8 years,

• about one third of those with IGT or IFG at the beginning of the study developed diabetes, compared with only 4.5% of those who started with normal blood sugar.
  

• For study participants who had both IGT and IFG at the outset, the chance of developing diabetes was much higher, the report indicates: 75% for women and 53% for men.
  

Besides abnormal blood sugar, only a high waist to hip ratio (a person's waist measurement divided by his or her hip measurement) proved to be a good predictor of later diabetes.

Based on these results, the authors conclude that the rate of diabetes among white persons aged 50 to 75 years is strongly related to both impaired fasting and impaired post-load glucose levels at baseline.

The Journal of the American Medical Association 2001;285:2109-2113

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

It's a sad tragedy, and, as one of the articles below documents, individuals who are 30-40 years old in the United States have had a 70 percent increase in their risk of diabetes. Folks, this is more than a doubling of the risk, and my guess is that this is only the tip of the iceberg. One of the biblical laws of truth is that you reap what you sow. Too many Americans have been sowing too many grains and they will be reaping the rewards of developing one of the worst chronic diseases--diabetes. This is sad, because type 2 diabetes is virtually 100-percent preventable and treatable with basic measures of proper food choices and exercise. Related Articles: Low Grain Carbohydrate Diets Treat Hypoglycemia, Heart Disease, Diabetes Cancer and Nearly ALL Chronic Illness Exercise Reduces Diabetes by Reducing Insulin Stress In Middle-Age Increases Diabetes Risk Diabetes Epidemic -- - 70 percent Increase Among People Ages 30 to 39 Other Diabetes Drug Also Causing Liver Failure