Detecting Type II Diabetes Earlier Than Ever Before

Doctor Nataly Lerner and team’s breakthrough research was targeted at those 79 million Americans (and growing) who have “prediabetes,” a significantly higher chance of developing with Type II diabetes. Lerner discovered that the already common A1c test to measure average blood sugar levels in Type II patients could also be used on “prediabetes” patients to screen for the disease at earlier stages than ever before.

Lerner, together with Doctor Michal Shani and Professor Shlomo Vicker, also of the Sackler Medical Faculty, surveyed the medical history of 10,201 patients in central Israel who had been given the A1c test between 2002 and 2005. The team found that about 22.5 percent of the test group that received prediabetic levels of between 5.7 and 6.4 percent on their A1c tests (the diabetic level is 6.4 percent and above) were diagnosed with diabetes 5-8 years later and that every 0.5 percent increase in A1c levels up to 7 percent doubled the patient’s risk of developing diabetes. All of this means that the tests usually used on diagnosed Type II patients could also determine the level of risk that “prediabetic” people face.

“We were actually able to quantify how risk increases with A1c levels,” says Lerner of the research recently published in the “European Journal of General Practice” which is set to boost the increase of diabetes awareness and make it easier for doctors to provide earlier diagnosis and treatment. As a bonus, the test is simpler to administer than the most common blood glucose tests, requiring neither fasting nor consuming anything.

Reference: ‘Sweet’ Success For Israeli Researchers In The Treatment And Early Detection Of Diabetes