SAN ANTONIO – Bexar County has the highest diabetes mortality rate in Texas, which is why it’s crucial to treat the disease before it becomes full-blown diabetes.
Diabetes and pre-diabetes are typically determined by your A1C, a simple blood test that measures your average blood sugar levels over the past three months.
A reading below 5.7 is normal, 5.7 to 6.4 is pre-diabetes, and 6.5 and above is considered diabetes.
Prediabetes is three times more prevalent than diabetes in the United States. Over 100 million people have pre-diabetes.
“Pre-diabetes, just like diabetes, is a chronic inflammatory medical disorder that needs treatment and needs to be taken seriously. You’re already at risk of having a heart attack, already at risk of having a stroke, blindness, amputations and neuropathy,” said Dr. Carolina Solis-Herrera, Chief of UT Health San Antonio’s Endocrinology Division.
Solis-Herrera’s team just won a $1.2 million award from the Baptist Health Foundation of San Antonio to establish early intervention for pre-diabetes.
In a month they’ll start a new clinical trial, testing four drugs currently used for diabetes to see if they work for pre-diabetes.
“We need to find strategies where we can bring affordable therapies to our patients. We need to bring awareness to providers so they treat it proactively and dynamically and for patients to take it seriously,” Solis-Herrera said.
Nine in 10 people who have pre-diabetes, don’t know it, and 50-70% of them will develop diabetes.
“Because they don’t go to check with your doctor,” Solis-Herrera said.
It’s even more important for those with risk factors.
“Being in the Hispanic community, having a family history of diabetes in your parents and your siblings. Even having a history of gestational diabetes, which is something that we don’t bring up a lot. If you had a child that weighed more than nine pounds, then you should be tested because 50% of those women, in five years are going to develop diabetes,” she said.
Solis-Herrera asks community members to head to their doctor, get tested, and take some action.
“Changing your lifestyle. 30 minutes of exercise four to five days a week or a brisk walk, adding more vegetables. Maybe trying to see a dietitian,” she said.
That extends to children as well.
“As parents, we need to be aware and take them to the pediatrician and make sure that they get their lab work at least once a year,” she said.
Solis-Herrera also hopes people will call to participate in her upcoming clinical trial. Anyone 18 or older with pre-diabetes can participate.
To see if you qualify, or even to test for pre-diabetes, call 210-450-9059. Compensation is available for participants.