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Mercy internist Dr. Janet O'Mahony

Mercy Internist Dr. Janet O'Mahony Discusses Women And Pre-Diabetes On WBAL-TV11's "Woman's Doctor"

People who get diabetes usually develop what's called pre-diabetes beforehand in which blood-glucose levels are higher than normal, and doctors say they can often predict who's going to get the disease. Ethel Lawson said she had no idea she was pre-diabetic until she started checking her blood sugar after her husband was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. "Every now and then I would check mine. I got a few high readings, which caused me some concern, so I talked with my doctor," she said. Mercy Medical Center internist Dr. Janet O'Mahony said part of the reason more people are diagnosed is because the numbers have changed. According to Dr. O'Mahony, people with a fasting glucose level between 100 and 126, which used to be in the normal range, are currently considered pre-diabetic. "We can sort of predict who's going to go on to develop diabetes — people with a family history, people who are overweight — and other people are at risk, like people with polycystic ovary disease," Dr. O'Mahony said. Lawson said she didn't like what she saw, so she decided to change things. "I think that was the easiest thing to do — when they taught me how to count carbs — and the fact that there were good carbs and bad carbs in the sense that you eat empty calories," she said. She's also exercising more. "I just increased my walking. I'm taking more steps. I'm having fun, really, because I was sitting on that sofa and watching that TV too much," Lawson said. She said the change is working. "It's worked in that my A1, which is a test for blood sugar over two to three months, on average went down from a 7.7 to 6.5, so I'm a success story for real," she said. The study showed that while some medications can delay the development of the disease, diet and exercise actually worked better. Furthermore, 30 minutes a day of moderate physical activity coupled with a 5 to 10 percent reduction in body weight produced a 58 percent reduction in diabetes.