13 in-depth guides on symptoms, levels, causes and management. Each one is written to answer a single question properly, and reviewed against current clinical guidance.
Cortisol and adrenaline raise glucose by design, telling the liver to release its stores. Your body cannot tell a deadline from a predator, which is why readings climb on days you have not eaten anything unusual.
The honest headline is that prediabetes usually causes nothing. Roughly 1 in 3 US adults has it and around 8 in 10 of them do not know. Here is what does show up, and who should be tested regardless.
There is no prediabetes food list that works on its own. What moves numbers is the shape of the plate, the order you eat it in, and what you walk off afterwards.
Most by-age charts are misleading. The thresholds are identical for every adult; what legitimately loosens with age is the target you are given once diagnosed, and the reason is hypoglycemia risk.
Thirst and fatigue look the same in everyone. What differs for women is the cluster around them — recurrent thrush, urinary infections, cycle-linked swings — and how often those get treated one at a time without anyone checking glucose.
Normal is 70 to 99 mg/dL, prediabetes starts at 100 and diabetes at 126. But the number is only as good as the fast behind it — and morning readings mislead more often than any other measurement.