It’s my understanding that the term “borderline diabetes” has fallen out of favor, but that the concept of the syndrome denoted by the term (some, but not all, of the symptoms of diabetes mellitus) is still with us. It’s just that all the cool doctors these day are calling it “prediabetes.”
Does anyone know the history behind the apparent “defrocking” of the term and its replacement with prediabetes?
I’ve always had the sense that one factor was patients labeled as “borderline” took this as some kind of permission to not take their condition seriously. Was there anything else (or entirely different) involved?
This is very likely the reason, much like the term sugar diabetes fell out of favor because it lead people to believe that the cause of diabetes was eating too much sugar. In fact, many people still believe that eating too much sugar causes diabetes.
Calling it borderline suggest that it’s up to fate whether or not you become diabetic, or that controlling your sugar intake alone will prevent you from becoming diabetic. Neither being true, although controlling your sugar intake isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Prediabetes infers that you will will most likely become diabetic later and may get you to a doctor where you can get some straight forward education on the condition.
The technical term is “impaired glucose tolerance”. I’ve heard people use “borderline diabetes” or “prediabetes” even though both terms have their problems.
I see more of it now that we have a fairly standard definition for it based on glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1C of 5.7-6.4; >6.5 indicates diabetes) and it’s easier to test for when patients aren’t fasting.
My doctor calls it (or something like it) metabolic syndrome. After dieting and using metformin, my A1C fell from high 7s to 5.5%. I don’t know how to describe myself. Incidentally it refers to the percentage of hemoglobin that is tied up with a glucose molecule.
If your doctor is saying metabolic syndrome = impaired glucose tolerance, he or she is wrong. Metabolic syndrome is actually a cluster of risk factors for heart disease, stroke, and diabetes, which requires at least 3 of the following to occur for diagnosis:
[ol]
[li]A large waistline, ie abdominal obesity[/li][li]High triglycerides (or being on medication for high triglycerides)[/li][li]Low HDL (or being on therapy to attempt to raise HDL)[/li][li]High Blood Pressure[/li][li]High Fasting Blood Sugar[/li][/ol]
Diabetic. Controlled but diabetic none the less. There is no cure, just states of controlled diabetes or uncontrolled diabetes once you start having to take the meds.