Lisa George, 46, has been a regular on the soap circuit, with television credits including Casualty, Holby City and Emmerdale. She is best known for her work on Coronation Street, however. Curiously, the soap actress played three different roles in Coronation Street before being cast as the character Beth Tinker back in 2011. In addition to her numerous screen incarnations, George also revealed another more personal side.
Speaking to the Express.co.uk, the soap star revealed she has a metabolic condition called prediabetes.
Prediabetes is characterised by the presence of blood glucose levels that are higher than normal but not yet high enough to be classed as diabetes.
As Diabetes.co.uk explained: “For this reason, prediabetes is often described as the ‘gray area’ between normal blood sugar and diabetic levels.”
In the UK, around seven million people are estimated to have prediabetes and thus have a high risk for developing type 2 diabetes.
Having a close relative (parent or sibling) who currently has or has had diabetes raises the risk of developing the condition.
The TV star knows this risk factor all too well – Her parents Muriel, 67 – known as Min – and Kenneth, 68, both have diabetes.
Doctors said I need to exercise and drop some weight
Lisa George
Other risk factors for prediabetes include:
- Have high blood pressure, low HDL (‘good’ cholesterol) or high triglycerides
- Are over the age of 40
- Have given birth to a baby who weighed over nine pounds
As the condition means a person’s blood glucose levels are always teetering on the edge between normal and diabetic, lifestyle changes must be made to keep the risks at bay.
As the soap star explained at the time: “Doctors said I need to exercise and drop some weight, then hopefully I won’t become diabetic.”
She continued: “I thought I’d better get right on it, so I’ve been using
the MyFitnessPal app and logging what I eat. I’ve started power walking and I’ve got an exercise bike that’s no longer just a clothes hanger. And I’ve lost weight – just under a stone.”
Making appropriate dietary changes can also help to ward off the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, said Diabetes.co.uk.
According to research published in the BMJ, it is estimated that around five to ten per cent of people with prediabetes will go on to progress to “full-blown” type 2 diabetes in any given years.
Researchers analysed information from the Health Survey for England (HSE). This is a survey that combines questionnaire-based answers with physical measurements and the analysis of blood samples from a representative sample of the English population.
This study found that there has been a significant increase between 2003 and 2011 in the proportion of people aged 16 or older with prediabetes, from 11.6 per cent in 2003 to 35.3 per cent in 2013.
For George, even though her pre diabetes hasn’t progressed to type 2 diabetes, keeping diabetes symptoms at bay has been a life-long commitment because of her mother’s condition. “I was hyper-vigilant,” she said.
She added: “Dad used to be an engineer who worked all over the world and was often away for months when we were younger. His last words before he got on the plane were always: ‘Look after your mother…’”
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