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Could I Have Diabetes Without Knowing It?
Diabetes is a silent and painless condition that easily goes unnoticed.Five to six years can elapse between the onset of the disease and its diagnostic, which is often delivered following a complication.
Could I be diabetic without being aware of it?
Are there any ways to improve screening?
The importance of diabetes screening.
Diabetes is characterized by excess blood sugar and results from genetic as well as environmental factors. So, can someone have diabetes without knowing it?
They can, because this disease remains insidiously painless for an extended period of time. It is usually diagnosed five to six years after the actual onset.
Pre-diabetes can be dangerous.
You could become a diabetic patient without knowing it and unless you do something about it now, you may develop the disease and directly threaten your health. The U.S. government has decided to address this critical public-health issue through the rather unusual initiative of raising Americans" awareness of a specific condition called pre-diabetes*.
This corresponds to the stage of the disease when blood glucose slightly exceeds the normal range.
Though pre-diabetes remains widely under diagnosed, a report released by Diabetes UK in 2009 estimated the number of people with pre-diabetes at 7 million.
So, don't hesitate to ask your pharmacist sister to measure your blood glucose level. It is not expensive and your life can depend on it.
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