Coronavirus and pre-diabetes

[professor]

I have a question

I am pre-diabetic - I did get one diabetic reading for my Hba1c reading but then managed to get back into the pre-diabetic reading. I do have symptoms though such as itching, bladder problems and thirst. However, should I be included in those with underlying health conditions which are mentioned on the UK website and which mentions that diabetes is a condition. I only ask because I am 66 with high cholesterol and blood pressure and I feel that puts me in quite a high risk of catching the virus and I might sound like a coward but I am! I work part time and at present am working at home. However, I work for the government and now am being redeployed to help another department and have now been told to travel to London. I was doing this beforehand but then we were all told to work from home. It is for this reason that I would like to know whether pre-diabetes is included in the diabetes heading or is it not a serious enough condition. Because I would not want to say that I had diabetes and my pre-diabetes is not included and then I wouldn't be telling the truth. I would be grateful for your response.

 

[trophywench]

Sounds to me like your BG is out of range quite a bit and now you have one of the normal side effects of that - thrush. Both men and women can get it and though I know very well what ladies can do to try and ease it - apart from getting their too high BG under more control of course - I've no idea what to suggest if you are male.

If I were you I'd invest in a cheap-ish to run blood sugar monitor (eg the SD Gluco Navii - and cut down on the things which are resulting in the too high blood glucose - and Test, Review, Adjust until you crack it.

 

[professor]

Thank you I have a blood monitor but unfortunately you have not answered my question, but thank you for trying though- I am female by the way.

 

[Eddy Edson]

I think the answer is that you are no more likely to catch the disease than anybody else your age, as far as anybody knows.

 

[Docb]

Agree with Eddy. Pre-diabetes does not make it more likely that you will get infected.

 

[SB2015]

I have a question

I am pre-diabetic - I did get one diabetic reading for my Hba1c reading but then managed to get back into the pre-diabetic reading. I do have symptoms though such as itching, bladder problems and thirst. However, should I be included in those with underlying health conditions which are mentioned on the UK website and which mentions that diabetes is a condition. I only ask because I am 66 with high cholesterol and blood pressure and I feel that puts me in quite a high risk of catching the virus and I might sound like a coward but I am! I work part time and at present am working at home. However, I work for the government and now am being redeployed to help another department and have now been told to travel to London. I was doing this beforehand but then we were all told to work from home. It is for this reason that I would like to know whether pre-diabetes is included in the diabetes heading or is it not a serious enough condition. Because I would not want to say that I had diabetes and my pre-diabetes is not included and then I wouldn't be telling the truth. I would be grateful for your response.

People with Diabetes are not on the high risk group that are required to be shielding.

We just need to be sensible, stay at home where possible. We are asked to work at home if possible, but I know that there are large number of members in here who are still going to work as they are key workers.

I hope that helps.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome to the forum @professor 🙂

Prediabetes isn’t actually a diagnosable condition. It’s a phrase used to mean ‘at risk of diabetes’, sometimes also called ‘impaired glucose tolerance‘ or ‘impaired glucose regulation’.

Diabetes as a condition is included on the list of ‘vulnerable’ where social distancing should be more carefully observed, but not the ‘extremely vulnerable’ list where people are to fully isolate.

It doesn’t seem that diabetes (or other ‘vulnerable’ conditions such as asthma) make it more likely that you would catch the virus, but that if you were to catch it and were one of the small proportion to then go on to develop a severe case - that diabetes would be an unwelcome complication factor. And of course, people with diabetes are not one uniform homogenous group. There are those with well managed glucose at essentially non-diabetic levels, and those with erratic and harder to manage blood glucose, those newly diagnosed (and yet to be diagnosed) and those who have had diabetes for decades. And they will be living with (or free from) long term complications to heart, circulation, liver, kidneys etc. Each of these will have their own risk from severe illness. Some no more than anyone else, others at significantly increased risk if they develop any severe illness.

So the official advice would be that you can continue with essential work, but that you should stay home if at all possible and your employer should help you to work from home.

[Withdrawn] [Withdrawn] Guidance on social distancing for everyone in the UK

www.gov.uk