There’s an important reason why every new patient at OSR Weight Management gets so many tubes of blood drawn at their first visit: in a new study, investigators have found that 50% of US adults have either outright diabetes or pre-diabetes – and they may not have even known.
This number has increased sharply since 1990 in every single ethnic group in the USA. Also notable is that the proportion of undiagnosed diabetes was as high as 50% in Asian-Americans, most of whom were totally unaware of the diagnosis. Given that Asian-Americans make up such a large proportion of Hawaii’s population, this should serve as a wake-up call for everyone to intensify screening efforts for this extremely costly disease. Diabetes damages the heart and blood vessels, the eyes and kidneys, and can cause devastating infections. Nearly 71,000 people die annually from diabetes-related complications, according to the American Diabetes Association.
Our Kailua patients should know that a simple blood glucose test to check for diabetes or prediabetes may not tell the whole story. This is why we run a test called the Hemoglobin A1C, or as most doctors call it, an “A1C.” By looking at how much glucose is bound up within our blood cells, the A1C test can give us a broad look at whether glucose is chronically elevated in the blood. This is in contrast to a blood glucose test, which only gives us a read within a given moment. Diabetes is defined as an A1C greater than 6.5%, and prediabetes is defined as an A1C between 5.7% and 6.5%.
Our comprehensive medical evaluation for weight loss always includes measurement of this number, especially if you have other risk factors such as a family history of diabetes or cardiovascular disease. Early diagnosis of diabetes and prediabetes is critical, and we can help: weight loss can dramatically lower your risk of problems and complications.
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