Prediabetes in Teens Can Triple Risk of Premature Heart Damage: Study

Even healthy teens and young adults may be on the path to heart disease if they have high blood sugar. Simple lifestyle changes can help reduce the risk.

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Doctors know that heart disease is one of the possible complications of diabetes. However, for the first time, research has examined the earliest connection between blood sugar and the heart. A recent study found that persistently high blood sugar levels during the growth period between adolescence and young adulthood can triple the risk of structural and functional heart damage. Girls were affected at five times the rate of boys.

The findings indicate that lifestyle and dietary factors are critically important in managing blood sugar levels during this time.

How High Blood Sugar Harms the Heart

In the study, published in Diabetes Care, international researchers assessed 1,595 UK adolescents at age 17 and age 24, monitoring the prevalence of prediabetes through fasting blood sugar levels. Prediabetes refers to fasting blood sugar that is higher than normal but lower than the level that indicates a diabetes diagnosis. The blood sugar cutoff points that denoted prediabetes were 5.6 millimoles per liter (mmol/L), as recommended by the American Diabetes Association, and 6.1 mmol/L, the current recommendation in many countries.