Everyone has sugar in their blood. When the sugar levels go higher than normal this is called hyperglycaemia. Normally the body is able to prevent hyperglycaemia and the blood sugar levels stay in the normal range. Diabetic patients are unable to keep their blood sugar in the normal range. There is a group of people that are somewhere in between these two groups and this is what we call Non-Diabetic Hyperglycaemia. This does not mean you are diabetic. It means that you are no currently managing to keep your sugar levels down as much as you should be able to. One of the main concerns with this is there is a risk of you developing diabetes and that is what we want to prevent.

Changing your diet is an important part of reducing your risk of diabetes

• Increase your consumption of foods that are high in fibre, such as wholegrain bread and cereals, beans and lentils, vegetables and fruit.

• Choose foods that are lower in fat and saturated fat, for example, by replacing products high in saturated fat (such as butter, ghee, some margarines or coconut oil) with versions made with vegetable oils that are high in unsaturated fat, or using low-fat spreads.

• Choose skimmed or semi-skimmed milk and low-fat yoghurts, instead of cream and full-fat milk and dairy products.

• Choose fish and lean meats instead of fatty meat and processed meat products (such as sausages and burgers).

• Grill, bake, poach or steam food instead of frying or roasting (for example, choose a baked potato instead of chips).

• Avoid food high in fat such as mayonnaise, chips, crisps, pastries, poppadums (papads) and samosas.

• Choose fruit, unsalted nuts or low-fat yoghurt as snacks instead of cakes, biscuits, bombay mix or crisps

Being more physically active can help reduce your risk of developing diabetes. This is true even if you make no other lifestyle changes

Currently the advice for physical activity in adults is:

• For good physical and mental health, adults should aim to be physically active every day. Any activity is better than none, and more is better still.
  
  
• Adults should do activities to develop or maintain strength in the major muscle groups. These could include heavy gardening, carrying heavy shopping, or resistance exercise. Muscle strengthening activities should be done at least two days a week, but any strengthening activity is better than none.
  
  
• Each week, adults should accumulate at least 150 minutes (2 1/2 hours) of moderate intensity activity (such as brisk walking or cycling); or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity activity (such as running); or even shorter durations of very vigorous intensity activity (such as sprinting or stair climbing); or a combination of moderate, vigorous and very vigorous intensity activity. 
  
  
• Adults should aim to minimise the amount of time spent being sedentary, and when physically possible should break up long periods of inactivity with at least light physical activity.

If you are overweight or obese it is srongly advised to lose weight. We know this is not easy and we can refer you to a weight management programme if you would like.

Reducing your calorie intake and increasing physical activity will both help you to lose weight.

There is no one diet that is advised and in general the best diet is one that you can stick to.

Weight loss can take a long time which can result in people giving up. Losing 5 to 10% of your weight in 1 year is a realistic target so don't be put off if you aren't seeing dramatic changes. Losing 5-10% of your weight in 1 year will help reduce your risk of developing diabetes and also lead to other significant health benefits

The NHS offers a programme that you can be referred to with the aim of preventing diabetes. Those referred to the service will receive tailored, personalised support to reduce their risk of Type 2 diabetes including education on healthy eating and lifestyle, help to lose weight and physical exercise programmes, all of which together have been proven to reduce the risk of developing the disease.

There are two ways of being referred to this programme

-You can self refer using the following link (you will need your most recent HbA1c result and the date of thes test and your NHS number- all of which you can get from us): https://www.lwtcsupport.co.uk/self-referral

-We can refer you. If you wish for us to refer you you can simply let our reception team know and they will pass the message on to a GP who will complete the referral

As mentioned above there is a risk of patients with Non-Diabetic Hyperglycaemia developing diabetes. We therefore will do a set of blood tests once a year to monitor your sugar levels as well as other health check bloods such as cholesterol.

If you develop symptoms of possible diabetes between your monitoring blood tests we would ask you to contact the surgery for review.

Symptoms of possible diabetes include:

• Increased thirst
  
  
• Frequent need to pass urine
  
  
• Extreme hunger
  
  
• Unexplained weight loss
  
  
• Fatigue
  
  
• Irritability
  
  
• Blurred vision