Prediabetes Reversal Cuts Heart Death Risk 58%
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- King's College London researchers found that people who reversed prediabetes cut their risk of cardiovascular death or hospitalization for heart failure by 58% and reduced major cardiovascular events (heart attacks, strokes) by 42%.
- Dr. Andreas Birkenfeld of King's College London and University Hospital Tuebingen led the study, published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, which challenged the long-held assumption that lifestyle changes alone (exercise, diet, weight loss) reduce cardiovascular risk in prediabetes.
- The 58% and 42% risk reductions persisted decades after blood glucose levels returned to normal, based on reanalysis of two long-running studies — the US DPPOS and the Chinese DaQingDPOS — with consistent results across both populations.
- Prediabetes affects more than one billion people worldwide — one in five UK adults, more than one in three US adults, and four in ten Chinese adults.
- Birkenfeld said the findings position prediabetes remission as a potential 'fourth major primary prevention tool' alongside lowering blood pressure, cutting cholesterol, and stopping smoking.
- The research is part of the transCampus partnership between King's College London and TUD Dresden University of Technology.
Why it matters: With more than one billion people globally living with prediabetes, the finding that remission — not just lifestyle management — cuts cardiovascular death risk by 58% could reshape clinical guidelines that have emphasized diet and exercise. Birkenfeld said remission could become a fourth pillar of heart disease prevention alongside blood pressure, cholesterol, and smoking control.
