Doctors Tim Kenealy, Bruce Arroll and Raina Elley proposed the need for pre-diabetes testing in commentary published in The Lancet international medical journal this week.

The move has also been backed by Britain's NHS Health Technology Assessment as a positive step in the fight against diabetes.

People with pre-diabetes -- where blood sugar levels are higher than normal but the pancreas is still producing insulin - can implement lifestyle changes to reduce their risk of developing the full disease.

A change in diet, exercise and a drug regime can stop the development of diabetes and the associated health problems, such as heart attacks, eye and circulation problems.

"With a simple blood test, we can identify those people at risk of diabetes and help them change their lifestyle to stop the disease before it develops," Professor Arroll of the university's faculty of medical and health sciences said.

"As clinicians, we have started implementing this test with our patients and this early wake up call has given those with pre-diabetes a chance to stop their declining health before it's too late."

Nearly 250 million people worldwide have diabetes, with around 85-95 percent suffering Type 2 (late onset) diabetes.

The disease causes 3.8 million deaths each year and it is estimated that more than $US200 billion ($NZ260 billion) is spent annually on treatment and prevention of diabetes and its complications.

For every person with diabetes there is at least one or more with pre-diabetes.

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

Add Comment