Diabetes & Impaired Glucose Tolerance

If you have an elevated blood sugar level measured by a glucose tolerance test that is not quite high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes then you will be found to have a condition known as impaired glucose tolerance. Your fasting glucose level may still be normal or slightly increased with this condition. Impaired glucose tolerance often proceeds development of diabetes type II and is caused when your body develops a tolerance to insulin. As well as significantly increasing your risk of developing diabetes, impaired glucose tolerance increases you risk of heart disease. So, if you have recently been diagnosed with impaired glucose tolerance then you should ensure that you eat a low sugar diet and exercise regularly in order to assist your body to respond to the insulin that it produces (which allows your body’s cells to absorb sugar from your blood). These simple lifestyle changes will help to delay the onset of diabetes although some GPs will also prescribe drugs (such as Carnitine) that might assist your body to absorb sugar from your blood.    

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