People with early signs of diabetes can slash their risk of death by 26 per cent if stave off a full diagnosis of the disease by four years, study suggests

Delaying the onset of diabetes for just four years can lower the risk of a heart attack by more than a third, a study has found.

Around one in nine adults in the UK has prediabetes, meaning they have a higher-than-normal blood sugar level and are at an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

But researchers have discovered that they can reduce their long-term risk of death and cardiovascular issues through diet and exercise alone.

A team from the China-Japan Friendship hospital analysed data that had previously been collected from 540 people with prediabetes.

Participants had been assigned to either a control group or one of three lifestyle interventions, which involved following a healthy diet, getting more exercise or both.

Almost 4.3 million people were living with diabetes in 2021/22. And another 850,000 people have diabetes and are completely unaware of it, which is worrying because untreated type 2 diabetes can lead to complications including heart disease and strokes 

The trial followed up with participants for more than 30 years.

Analysis revealed that those who remained non-diabetic for at least four years after their initial prediabetes diagnosis had a significantly lower risk of dying and having a heart attack or stroke compared to those who developed diabetes sooner.

These people were 26 per cent less likely to die and 37 per cent less likely to have a heart attack or stroke compared with those who developed diabetes within four years.

Overall, the results suggest that the longer a prediabetic person can delay developing diabetes, the better their long-term health outcomes will be, the researchers said.

However, even just a few years of maintaining a prediabetic status can yield benefits for years to come.

Writing in the journal Plos Medicine they said: ‘Our analyses showed that individuals who remained non-diabetic for at least four years after being diagnosed with impaired glucose tolerance had a significantly lower risk of all-cause death, cardiovascular events, and microvascular complications compared with those who progressed to diabetes.

‘However, this effect was not observed in individuals who remained non-diabetic for a shorter period.’

They added that effective interventions targeting those with prediabetes should be considered as part of preventative management for diabetes.

Previous research has consistently shown that for some people with prediabetes, combined lifestyle interventions including diet, physical activity and sustained weight loss can be effective in reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes.