Pre-diabetes, the state when blood sugar levels are higher than normal just before a person becomes diabetic, usually has no symptoms.
Rich, sumptuous buffets were a regular part of Jennifer's (not her real name) diet. However, results of her annual health check-up last year showed that she was one step away from developing full-blown diabetes. She had pre-diabetes.
The 42-year-old was terrified. After all, she had not shown any symptoms of diabetes, which include constant feelings of thirst, fatigue and frequent urination.
Dr Lee Chung Horn, an endocrinologist at Gleneagles Medical Centre and the doctor in charge of Jennifer's case, said that pre-diabetes typically has no symptoms.
Pre-diabetes, confirmed by blood glucose tests, is a state in which blood glucose levels are higher than normal, but not high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes, he said.
However, it can easily turn into diabetes within a year if one does not take preventive measures like exercising more and losing weight, he said.
"Sometimes, the pre-diabetes stage is not even discovered. By the time the patient comes in for a check-up, he already has diabetes," he said.
Pre-diabetes, which affects about 12 per cent of Singaporeans, is worrying because it increases one's risk of heart disease even if diabetes does not develop.
People with pre-diabetes often have the same cardiovascular risk factors – high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, excess body weight – as those with full-blown diabetes, said Dr Lee.
These factors increase the risk of the patient developing heart disease even before the advent of diabetes, he said.
Diabetes is a condition Singaporeans should be concerned about as it was the seventh most common cause of death here in 2008. Complications include kidney and heart damage. It is also implicated as a contributory cause in about 40 per cent of strokes here, said Dr Lee.
However, what is worrying is that more young people here are diagnosed with diabetes, which is typically considered a middle-aged disease. In Singapore, Type 2 diabetes made up about 5 per cent of all forms of childhood diabetes 15 years ago.
Today, it accounts for about one-third of all childhood diabetes here, said Associate Professor Lee Yung Seng, a senior consultant at the division of paediatric endocrinology & diabetes at the University Children's Medical Institute at the National University Hospital. It usually affects older children, especially those in puberty.
The International Diabetes Federation attributes this increase to the over-consumption of high-caloric and low-nutrient food and drinks, as well as an overly sedentary lifestyle.
The rise in numbers is alarming because these kids are at risk of the same long-term complications as adult diabetics are. These include eye and heart diseases, nerve problems and renal failure if they do not manage their condition well, said Prof Lee.
By: GERALDINE LING
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