People with prediabetes who lower their blood sugar levels to normal can reduce their risk of death from heart disease or hospitalisation for heart failure by more than 50 per cent.
Prediabetes is a condition in which blood glucose levels are higher than normal but not high enough to be diagnosed as type 2 diabetes. Globally, more than one billion people are estimated to have prediabetes, and many will progress to type 2 diabetes.
In a study published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, British researchers reanalysed data from two landmark diabetes prevention trials in the US and China that had previously shown that lifestyle interventions, such as exercise and a healthy diet, delayed the onset of type 2 diabetes but did not clearly demonstrate a reduction in cardiovascular disease.
For the current analysis, researchers examined whether reversing prediabetes, rather than simply delaying diabetes, provided cardiovascular benefits.
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They found that people who achieved remission had a 58 per cent lower risk of cardiovascular death or hospitalisation for heart failure, a 42 per cent lower risk of heart attack, stroke and other major cardiovascular events and a lower risk of death from any cause compared with those who did not.