ISLAMABAD: Pre-diabetes is a condition people may have before developing type 2 diabetes. Pre-diabetes is caused by higher than normal blood glucose (or blood sugar) levels, but the levels are not high enough for the person to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Other names for pre-diabetes are “impaired glucose tolerance” and “impaired fasting glucose.” These are the names of two tests commonly used to decide if someone has pre-diabetes or diabetes. Pre-diabetes is not just an early warning sign for diabetes. Individuals with pre-diabetes have a 50 percent greater risk of cardiovascular disease (heart disease and stroke) compared to people with normal glucose levels. People who are at risk of diabetes are also at risk of pre-diabetes. You should get tested for pre-diabetes if you are age 45 or older and overweight or you are overweight and younger than age 45 and have any of these risk factors: high blood pressure; high cholesterol; family history of diabetes; history of gestational diabetes (diabetes that occurs during pregnancy); gave birth to a baby weighing more than 9 pounds; are a minority ethnic group. If you are aged 45 and older, with a normal weight, ask your health care provider if he or she recommends testing. People with pre-diabetes may have the same symptoms of people with diabetes, like unusual thirst, a frequent need to go to the bathroom, blurred vision or a feeling of being tired most of the time for no apparent reason. However, people often do not know they have pre-diabetes or type 2 diabetes because they do not feel symptoms or the symptoms develop so gradually that people don’t recognize them. That is why it is important to ask your provider about being tested, particularly if you have a number of the risk factors mentioned earlier. Many people with pre-diabetes develop type 2 diabetes within 10 years. However, the onset of diabetes can be prevented or delayed. The Diabetes Prevention Program study, completed in 2002, showed that diabetes can be delayed by slight weight loss (5 to 10 percent of current body weight), through a healthy diet and 30 minutes of moderate physical activity at least five days a week. These lifestyle changes were found to work better than medication alone in delaying diabetes. If you have other risk factors, your doctor will likely recommend the use of medication and lifestyle changes to delay getting diabetes. Common Sense: The air is getting cooler. The smoke is curling from chimneys. That means cold season is upon us. But a little common sense can help combat the common cold. Many of us would like an easy way to prevent a cold. But recent reviews of medical research show that there is no “magic bullet” – at least not in Echinacea, Vitamin C, or zinc. Researchers at Hartford Hospital and University of Connecticut studied the results of 14 randomized controlled trials involving 1630 participants and found that taking Echinacea helped reduce the chances of catching a cold. But this contradicts the results of a large 2005 trial, which contradicts a 2000 study. So it’s not clear if Echinacea is effective in preventing colds. Scientists at University of Helsinki in Finland and Australian National University looked at 24 trials involving 10,708 participants and found that Vitamin C had no effect on preventing a cold. With zinc, there is so little research that it is difficult to determine zinc’s effect on a cold. Common sense still prevails. A cold is spread when pathogens from a carrier leave that person’s body and enter another’s through the mouth, nose, or eyes. Steps to help prevention include: sneeze or cough into a sleeve; keep hands away from mouth, nose, and eyes; keep other objects that could be contaminated, such as pens, hair, necklace, keys, or clothing, out of the mouth; wash hands well and often; use warm, running water and soap and scrub for 20 seconds – as long as it takes to sing the ABC’s. Sometime try timing your usual duration for scrubbing and see how well you meet the 20 second goal! After washing hands, don’t touch dirty faucet handles or door knobs before eating. Always wash hands before eating or even touching food, even if it’s just a little snack at your germ-laden desk! Published in Daily Times, June 12th 2018.