Improving prediabetes

6 steps to improve prediabetes

• Knowing why it is important to improve prediabetes can help with making lifestyle changes.
• Nutrition changes have the greatest effect.
• Improvement in overall health and HbA1c can be noticed after three months.

Following a simple process can increase the chance of success.

Know why improving prediabetes matters to you.

• Why do you want to improve your health?
• What difference will it make to you life?
• What do you hope to notice as your health improves?

Decide on a day to start the lifestyle changes. What prepartion do you need?

• Do you need to check with a healthcare professional before making any major dietary changes?
• Will you start today or in the near future? Pick a day.

Make a short plan of the lifestyle changes you will start with. It is personal, so develop a plan that suits you.

• Nutrition changes usually have the greatest impact on blood glucose. What nutrition changes will you make? Will you make changes one-step at a time, or will you follow a specific food list or diet?
• What movement improvements could you make?
• Can sleep be improved?

What do you need to help you succeed?

• What resources do you need to help with your lifestyle choices?
• Would support from other people help with your lifestyle choices?

Improving prediabetes is usually a contiuous learning experience. People rarely achieve complete and sustained success in one go. Often the best results come after trying something, noticing what happens, and learning.

• Notice what works as you make lifestyle changes.
• What benefits are you noticing? With nutrition changes many people start to notice health benefits within a few weeks.
• What do you learn when things don't go to plan? What might you do differently? What else would help?

An HbA1c blood test can be used to monitor the effect of lifestyle change on prediabetes. It is usual to retest HbA1c after 3 to 6 months of dietary change. Some people will see significant improvements in this time. Other people may see smaller changes.

• If there was a significant improvement in HbA1c, what was it that created this? Are the changes you made something you will continue?
• If there was only a small or no improvement in HbA1c, why might this be? Could further dietary changes be made? Would more resources of support be helpful?

Improving prediabetes and health is personal. There are some common experiences but everyone's journey is a bit different. I enjoy hearing from my patients about what has worked for them and their top tips.

People across the country are working with their GP and nurses to improve their prediabetes.

We are all continually learning.

• Insights from a general practice service evaluation supporting a lower carbohydrate diet in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and prediabetes: a secondary analysis of routine clinic data including HbA1c, weight and prescribing over 6 years