It’s time to wake up to the effects of pre-diabetes, and start treating it like the big deal it is.

People with diabetes are four times more likely to suffer heart attack and stroke compared to those who have normal blood sugar levels.

And now new research from the American College of Cardiology says even those with pre-diabetes have a significantly higher risk of major cardiovascular events, serving as a warning to prevent pre-diabetes in the first place.

What was the study?

Researchers studying the effects of pre-diabetes and its role in cardiovascular health conducted a study of 25,829 patients between 2006 and 2020. Patients ranged from 18 to 104 years old.

The patients were split into a pre-diabetes group and a control group (where patients were shown to maintain a normal HbA1c five years apart and throughout the study).

So what happened?

Patients were followed for a 14-year period where researchers used international disease codes to determine whether patients suffered any heart-related issues.

What was the result?

Patients in the pre-diabetes group suffered more heart-related issues, mostly in males with a family history of heart attack or who were classified as overweight.

Researchers concluded that pre-diabetes plays a role in heart health because elevated blood glucose levels can cause inflammation in the heart vessels, damaging them. When the vessels are injured, they narrow, which means blood cannot circulate properly.

The bottom line

Whilst more research is needed to validate the long term effects of pre-diabetes, the good news is that pre-diabetes can be prevented.

Getting regular exercise, eating a healthy fat, high protein and low carb diet, has been proven to reduce your risks of pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes.

Check out some of our low carb recipes in the blog or download the Defeat Diabetes app to join our program.

Together, we can Defeat Diabetes.