You have probably had your blood sugar checked at a routine visit. For many people the number sits a little too high, enough to earn the label of prediabetes.
Most of us just hope it does not turn into anything worse.
A new analysis in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology suggests that if you can push that number back into the normal range, your heart may thank you for decades.
People who hit what researchers call prediabetes remission were about half as likely to have a heart attack, stroke or hospitalization for heart failure as those whose prediabetes stuck around.
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Prediabetes is extremely common. The CDC estimates that 115.2 million US adults have it, and more than 8 in 10 do not know. It is one piece of a wider pattern, in which 9 in 10 Americans carry at least one heart, kidney or blood sugar risk factor.
What the researchers actually did
The team pooled data from two long diabetes prevention trials, one in the United States and one in China. More than 2,400 adults with prediabetes were followed for up to 20 years in the US trial and up to 30 years in the Chinese one.
All had taken part in lifestyle programs built around weight loss, more exercise and a healthier diet.
The analysis then split participants into two groups. Those whose fasting blood sugar fell back into the normal range were counted as being in remission. Those whose numbers stayed in the prediabetes zone were not.
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People in the remission group had a 58 percent lower risk of dying from cardiovascular causes or being hospitalized for heart failure. Heart attacks, strokes and other major heart events were about 42 percent less common.
The protective effect was still visible more than a decade after the diet and exercise programs ended.
Why lifestyle change alone was not enough
One finding ran against the usual advice. In both trials, people who adopted healthier routines but did not actually get their blood sugar back below the prediabetes line did not see the same drop in heart risk.
It was the normal glucose number, not the effort by itself, that tracked with the long-term benefit.
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Lead author Andreas Birkenfeld is a diabetes specialist at University Hospital Tübingen and King's College London. In a statement from the German Center for Diabetes Research, he said the finding reframes what prevention is actually for.
Birkenfeld said remission of prediabetes not only delays or prevents the onset of type 2 diabetes, as already known. "It also protects people from serious cardiovascular diseases in the long term, over the span of decades," he said.
What the target number is
In the study, remission meant a fasting blood sugar at or below 97 mg/dL, kept there for at least a year. Most participants reached it through a mix of modest weight loss, more physical activity and a diet shift toward whole foods and fewer refined carbs.
The target held up regardless of age, weight or ethnicity.
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If a recent lab result put you in the prediabetes range, the CDC recommends asking a doctor about an evidence-based prevention program and knowing your exact fasting glucose number.
Getting that single value back below 97 mg/dL appears to be the goal that pays off for the heart.
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This article is made and published by Mie Hermansen, who may have used AI in the preparation.