Undiagnosed DiabetesBack
Many people have diabetes and don't even know it. This could be a major concern for your health and well-being, especially if you have some of the risk factors of diabetes including, obesity, hypertension, high levels of fat in your blood or are inactive. Another risk factor is being Hispanic, African-American, Asian-American or American Indian, as these population groups have higher rates of diabetes than others.
You might be surprised by just how many people have undiagnosed diabetes. According to the National Diabetes Education Program, 25.8 million Americans have diabetes, or 8.3 percent of the U.S. population. Of these, seven million do not know they have the disease.
Undiagnosed Diabetes: What to Look For
Undiagnosed diabetes is a major concern, as diabetes poses major health risks even when monitored by a doctor. When it goes undiagnosed or untreated, the risks are even greater.
"Many people who are diagnosed with diabetes do not have apparent symptoms," says Rebecca Dority, RD, a certified diabetes educator and instructor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at Texas Christian University. "If symptoms are present, they might include excessive thirst, excessive urination, fatigue, irritability, or blurry vision." Rebecca adds that because symptoms are often difficult to detect, your best course of action is to receive an annual physical.
How Diabetes is Detected
To determine if you have diabetes, your doctor may use one of a few different types of tests. These include a fasting glucose test, a glucose tolerance test, or a HbA1c test. In the past, the glucose tests were the preferred methods of testing for diabetes, but the HbA1c test is gradually growing in use. "The HbA1c or A1c test is now a recommended diagnostic criterion for diabetes effective in 2010 as recommended by the American Diabetes Association," says William C. Gong, Pharm.D., an associate professor of Clinical Pharmacy at the University of Southern California. "It is a good test, as a one-time measurement of greater than 6.5 percent indicates a diagnosis of diabetes. Patients who have 6.5 percent or higher reflect that the patient's blood glucose has been consistently high."
One advantage of the HbA1c test is that it doesn't require repeat tests to determine if a person really has diabetes, whereas the HbA1c test generally does not. "It's difficult to estimate the number of providers across the country that use the A1c test to diagnose diabetes, but it remains one of the preferred tests," says Charles D. Ponte, PharmD, a professor of Clinical Pharmacy and Family Medicine at West Virginia University. "The A1c test can be drawn at any time and doesn't require the person to fast 8 to 12 hours prior to the test, unlike the fasting blood glucose test."
"HbA1c has the advantage of being easier for the patient because no fasting is required, but it might not be appropriate for use in some patients," says Jill Crandall, MD, director of the Diabetes Clinical Trials Unit at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. "Certain medical conditions — some types of anemia, for example, or serious liver disease — can interfere with the accuracy of HbA1c, so in these cases, blood sugar testing is preferred. Annual screening is usually recommended in people at risk for diabetes."
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