Australian researchers have found that even before the disease becomes full blown diabetes increases a persons risk for heart disease.
With type 2 diabetes the body is unable to produce or properly use insulin properly; in pre-diabetes, the body has started having problems handling blood sugar, but those problems have not yet become diabetes.
It is common that people before they develop type 2 diabetes, experience problems metabolizing sugar, a symptom picked up by a blood glucose test.
Having abnormal blood glucose levels after fasting is a condition known as pre-diabetes and it affects 56 million people in the United States.
Researchers at the International Diabetes Institute in Melbourne, Australia conducted a large study involving 10,429 Australians with an average age of 51-63 years, over an almost five year period and they found that people with pre-diabetes had more than double the risk of death from heart disease.
Type 2 diabetes is becoming an increasing problem throughout the world and it is inked with obesity, poor diet and lack of exercise; it can lead to blindness, loss of limbs, heart disease and premature death.
Elizabeth Barr and her colleagues found in their study that those patients considered pre-diabetic had a 2.5 times higher risk of death from heart problems than those who metabolized glucose normally.
The research team say the study confirms the clinical importance of pre-diabetes, and suggests there is a need to target glucose abnormalities with lifestyle interventions.
The Australian team recommend boosting heart health in anyone with blood sugar problems, even if those problems are too mild to qualify as diabetes.
Other research has shown that people with pre-diabetes can prevent type-2 diabetes through dietary changes and increased physical activity.
The pre-diabetes finding also supports other research which too suggests that people with type 2 diabetes have a far higher risk of stroke even within the first five years of diagnosis.