[Ronin]

Everyone:

The topic always seems to drift into the question about the veracity of the diagnosis called "Pre-Diabetic."

From my perspective, the people who advocate for the diagnosis, are in what I call the "Environmental Camp." That is to say that they firmly believe that diabetes can be caused by your environment (i.e., what you eat, lack of exercise, all the things that you can/should control yourself).

If this position is accurate then people diagnosed as Pre-Diabetic should, though altering their lives, be able to bypass the onset of diabetes.

On the other side of the argument are the "Genetisists" who claim that it isn't what you eat or do, but that your genetics have a flaw that will inevitably lead to the onset of diabetes.

The reality of living as one with the diagnosis of Pre-Diabetic is that, without medication, I maintain BG statistics that are considered good-to-great for a full blown diabetic, while not quite as good as a person who is not at all diabetic. In short, modification of life-style would seem to have offset the onset of actual diabetes where medication would be required.

As to the active and lean folks who are diagnosed as Type-2's -- this is curious because I personally know more than a few of them (all fellow bicyclists). Type-2 treatments seem to work for a while but never resolve in the way that these medications work on an overweight inactive Type-2. The people I know have all been put on insulin after discovering that their C-Peptide readings were very low to almost non-existent. So, are they really Type-2, or was it a mis-diagnosis because the MD in question has the firm belief that any adult onset of diabetic symptoms is automatically a Type-2? (FWIW: My C-Peptide is low, but slightly inside the "normal" range.)

In the final analysis all of us, Type-1's, 2's, and even the Pre-D's share a concern about how to best manage our BG levels. Each one responds, or fails to respond, to certain treatment regemens.

I don't remember who the signature block belongs to, but there is one who sums it all up in: "we don't have a stinking clue."

If somebody asked "WIll the real diabetic please stand up" I'm not sure I'd know exactly what to do, but I'd probably stand up anyway.