Answer: Diabetes can hit without warning, and a lot of people don’t even know they’re at risk for this serious disease. That’s why it’s important to detect it in its earliest stages.

In the journal Diabetes Care, an expert committee with the American Diabetes Association (ADA) recently reported that about 40 percent of adults ages 40 to 74 suffer from a condition called prediabetes. In other words, 41 million people are at risk for developing type 2 diabetes— the most common type of diabetes. Prediabetes occurs when glucose levels climb higher than normal but are not yet considered diabetic. The ADA has found that many people with prediabetes develop diabetes within 10 years.

There’s a bright side to the news about prediabetes: It doesn’t inevitably lead to diabetes. People with prediabetes have the power to delay—or even prevent—diabetes by taking steps to lower their glucose levels.

	Anne Griffiths, MD Family Practice

Ask your doctor about screening tests that can detect prediabetes and diabetes. If you find out that you have prediabetes, and you’re carrying around excess pounds, losing just 5 to 10 percent of your body weight can delay or prevent the onset of diabetes, say studies. You can do this by eating a healthy diet and exercising moderately—such as walking briskly—just 30 minutes a day. In fact, in the Diabetes Prevention Program, a study conducted by the National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, researchers found that these simple lifestyle changes delayed the development of diabetes by 58 percent in people with prediabetes.