Scientists from Tangshan People’s Hospital found that people who reverse their prediabetes may lower the risk of heart attack, stroke and death.
The research is published in the Journal of the American Heart Association and was conducted by Dr. Robert Eckel et al.
With prediabetes, a person has blood sugar levels that are higher than normal but lower than the threshold for a diabetes diagnosis. Even so, people with prediabetes are more likely to have a heart attack or stroke.
Prediabetes can be reversed, and smaller studies suggest doing so lowers the risk of developing heart disease.
In the study, the team looked at a group of 14,231 coal company employees, most of them men, taking part in a long-term study. Their blood sugar was checked in 2006, and again in 2008, and they were tracked through 2017.
Between 2006 and 2008, about 45% of the participants reverted from prediabetes to normal blood sugar. About 42% stayed the same, and 13% progressed to diabetes.
After an average follow-up of nearly nine years, the researchers found that people who reverted to normal blood sugar from prediabetes had a 38% lower risk of heart attack and a 28% lower risk of ischemic stroke than those who progressed to diabetes.
Their risk of dying from any cause during the follow-up period was 18% lower than those who progressed to diabetes.
This is the first time that reversing prediabetes has been associated with a substantially lower risk for heart attack and stroke.
The team says it was good to see the cardiovascular benefits of reverting from prediabetes reflected in a study that looked at a large group of people.
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