I will begin this article by saying what I often explain to my patients when they inquire for the first time interested in gastric sleeve surgery or another diabetes procedure:

The main objective of this type of surgery is to lead the patient to a weight that allows him/her to be healthier and/or improve his/her current health condition since obesity goes hand in hand with many chronic diseases and degenerative diseases such as diabetes.

However, there will never be a better medicine or treatment than prevention, so if you don’t have diabetes yet, but you are obese, you must know that you are at risk. With the simple fact of being obese you are more likely to suffer from it, so weight loss surgery will prevent you from developing this disease which so deteriorating and dangerous to your health and well-being.

The term prediabetes has some other names that you probably have already heard before, such as "glucose intolerance" or "impaired fasting glucose".

Prediabetes, a huge silent enemy

Leaving aside the terms, let's focus on what it means to be prediabetic, which is usually patients who suffer from being overweight or obese and has a certain genetic or other risk factors that make them more prone to suffer from this situation. which is the preamble of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, a topic that we will discuss at another moment.

In prediabetes the following occurs: the level of glucose (sugar) in a person's blood is higher than normal, but it is not high enough to be classified as diabetic, and as with diabetics, prediabetes is associated with other serious diseases such as an increased risk of cerebrovascular diseases (brain embolisms) and ischemic cardiovascular disease (myocardial infarction or angina pectoris).

What are the factors to consider and determine your risk of being prediabetic?

Age

In this factor there is not much that as a patient you can do, you should only consider that as the age advances the metabolism changes, so it becomes more difficult to maintain a healthy weight and “age related” diseases present, risk which can be reduced to the maximum following the recommendations that we will share later.

Gender

The specific risk of suffering from diabetes if you are a female or a male is not very clear since there are many factors that come into play, what is clear is that women suffer more deterioration and consequences faster when suffering from diabetes compared to the male gender.

Race or ethnic group

Prediabetes and type 2 diabetes are more common in African-Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, Native Americans, Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders.

Degree of physical activity

As is already well known, sedentary lifestyle increases the risk of suffering from multiple diseases, so a certain degree of physical activity will reduce the chances of being prediabetic.

Genetics

Having first-line relatives like parents or siblings with diabetes increases the chances suffering from it as well.

Suffering from other metabolic diseases

As with diabetes, people suffering from diseases such as high blood pressure, hypercholesterolemia, obesity, etc., are more likely to be prediabetic.

Height and Weight

As it is for diabetes and other related diseases, being overweight or obese is a determining risk factor to increase the propensity to develop and suffer from prediabetes, so even a moderate weight loss can reverse this situation.

Prediabetes can often be reversed through changes in lifestyle, such as increased physical activity and weight loss. The sooner a person with prediabetes is diagnosed, the more likely it is to reverse and prevent type 2 diabetes.

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What to do to prevent prediabetes?

Making changes in your lifestyle may seem difficult but the effort is worth it. It will be necessary to take into consideration that if you are overweight or mildly obese you do not need to lose a lot of weight, just losing a few pounds of weight could be enough to get you away from this situation! Here we share the main measures to take into account to improve your health:

Control your weight

• The loss of between 5 to 7 percent of your body weight can delay or even reverse prediabetes.
  
  
• The objective should be not only to lose weight but to maintain this weight loss in the long term, which is a bit more difficult and this is where it is possible to consider weight loss surgery as an option since it is one of the main advantages of this approach, is that it allows the patient to maintain their weight for a longer or indefinite time if the patient does not lose focus over the years.
  
  
• Being more active and eating healthy are effective ways to control your weight in most cases. The key is to have an action plan, follow it literally if possible and if you do not succeed, consider even more effective measures such as bariatric surgery. Whichever way you choose, you must remember that this is not something that is achieved from one day to the other, since it requires tenacity and effort on your part to achieve it.

Stay active

• Do at least 2.5 hours of light aerobic physical activity each week. This could be as simple as a quick walk of 30 minutes, 5 days a week. If you do not have enough time to walk 30 minutes then walk 10 minutes several times a day during your daily activities as every minute adds up.

• Remember that small steps can lead to big changes, the important thing is to start and it may be easier to decide to walk only a few minutes and it is very likely that while doing this activity you will be encouraged to continue for longer.

• Find simple and inexpensive ways to be more active throughout the day, such as climbing the stairs instead of using the elevator or parking your car farther from the entrance of a store when you go shopping, going for a walk with the family or the pet to the park, go to visit your neighbors or the convenience store walking. Everything that makes you more active will be leading you one more step further in the right direction.

• Create a calendar of activities, this will make you somehow feel more committed to yourself.

Eat healthily

• Try to integrate fruits, vegetables and salads into your diet, including at least once a salad in your food can make an important difference because it will help you eat the food your body needs, without increasing your weight and satisfying your appetite.

• Cook food without fat or oil: try to cook on the grill, steamed or baked, this will not reduce the flavor of your food and it will improve your health!

• Learning to read food labels is important. The more you know what your food includes, the better decisions you can make. Try to reduce foods with saturated fats or trans fats.

• Eat slowly: This is a recommendation that I give to all my patients and I do not get tired of insisting on its importance, it may seem that it does not make much of a difference but in my opinion it is a crucial factor to achieve weight loss in pre and post-surgical patients, you must chew your food at least 25 times before swallowing the bite, this will help have better digestion and allow the sensation of satiety to reach your body before you have eaten in excess. Believe me, this easy and simple advice can make a big difference in your weight loss goals.

• It is also important and highly recommended that you do not tend to eat with liquids, preferably do not drink water or any liquid 30 minutes before eating or wait 30 minutes after meals to drink your favorite drink (preferably water and if not low sugar beverages)

Stop smoking

• It is of unnecessary delving deep in this topic, is by all well-known the multiple reasons for which it is important to leave this vice that only acts in detriment of your health!

Gastric sleeve for prediabetes

Can gastric sleeve cure pre-diabetes?

The most important thing about being prediabetic is that is a completely reversible situation when the right measures are taken on time to prevent their progression to diabetes. And this in your hands to achieve it, as you can see the recommendations are simple and common sense, sometimes it is difficult to achieve the necessary discipline to reach the goal but when it is literally your life, is worth the attempt.

Now, if you are sick and tired and you have tried everything, the gastric sleeve for diabetes can be the solution to your problem and better yet it can be the way to prevent the development if you already you are pre-diabetic or diabetic.

We invite you to know in detail the surgical options for the treatment of obesity and metabolic diseases, or if you are interested in knowing more about the gastric sleeve for diabetes send us your information and we will gladly answer all your questions and concerns!

In Obesity Free we perform weight loss surgery in Laredo, Piedras Negras and Monterrey. Contact us for more information.

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