The US Preventive Services Task Force has come up with new recommendations as per which doctors should ask overweight and obese people aged between 40 and 70 years to get screened for high blood sugar levels and type-2-diabetes. If found having high blood sugar then steps can be taken to bring down the level.

Dr. Michael Pignone, a task force member, said, “People with abnormal blood glucose have a higher risk for progression to [type 2] diabetes. By finding abnormal blood glucose early, you may prevent that pathway by starting lifestyle interventions early”.

Pignone, who is also professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said that obesity and being overweight are risk factors for type-2-diabetes. Other factors that can put you at increased risk of having type-2 diabetes are high percentage of abdominal fat, being physically inactive and smoking.

As per the current screening recommendations by the American Diabetes Association, people aged 45 years or older should undergo routine screening and earlier screening for those having many risk factors for type-2 diabetes.

Before these guidelines, the task force came up with the recommendations in 2008. Pignone said that the six studies have unveiled that if changes are brought on lifestyle-modification programs then the risk of type-2 diabetes can be reduced.

If a person test comes out positive for abnormal sugar level then as per the task force the multiple sessions of counseling that promote healthy diet and physical activity are most beneficial.