Prediabetes, chronic inflammation and hemoglobin A1c

Prediabetes, blood glucose is slightly higher than normal but not enough to qualify for diabetes, is associated with an increased systemic burden of inflammation and elevated risk for cardiovascular, cancer, dementia and other diseases. The first study described in this post, published in the European Journal of Nutrition, highlights the link between prediabetes, chronic inflammation and mortality from a range of diseases tied to HgbA1c (hemoglobin A1c, glycosylated hemoglobin), the key biomarker for glucose regulation. The authors state:

"Chronic inflammation is associated with increased risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and diabetes. The role of pro-inflammatory diet in the risk of cancer mortality and CVD mortality in prediabetics is unclear. We examined the relationship between diet-associated inflammation, as measured by dietary inflammatory index (DII) score, and mortality, with special focus on prediabetics."

Pro-inflammatory diet plus prediabetes (increased HgbA1c)

Of great significance is the effect they reveal when a pro-inflammatory diet, measured by the dietary inflammatory index (DII) score, is consumed when there is elevated HgbA1c. They categorized 13,280 subjects between the ages 20 of and 90 years according to whether or not they were prediabetic, which they defined as a HgbA1c percentage of 5.7–6.4. Their data highlighted this connection between all-cause mortality, a pro-inflammatory diet and prediabetes:

"The prevalence of prediabetes was 20.19 %. After controlling for age, sex, race, HgbA1c, current smoking, physical activity, BMI, and systolic blood pressure, DII scores in tertile III (vs tertile I) was significantly associated with mortality from all causes (HR 1.39, 95 % CI 1.13, 1.72), CVD (HR 1.44, 95 % CI 1.02, 2.04), all cancers (HR 2.02, 95 % CI 1.27, 3.21), and digestive-tract cancer (HR 2.89, 95 % CI 1.08, 7.71). Findings for lung cancer (HR 2.01, 95 % CI 0.93, 4.34) suggested a likely effect."

The authors conclude:

"A pro-inflammatory diet, as indicated by higher DII scores, is associated with an increased risk of all-cause, CVD, all-cancer, and digestive-tract cancer mortality among prediabetic subjects."

 Prediabetes and cardiovascular risk

Research published in The BMJ (British Medical Journal) focusses on the substantial impact of prediabetes on the risk of heart attack and ischemic stroke. The authors set out to...

"...evaluate associations between different definitions of prediabetes and the risk of cardiovascular disease and all cause mortality..."

...by analyzing 53 prospective cohort studies with 1,611,339 individuals that passed the screening tests for validity. In this study they applied several definitions of prediabetes:

"Prediabetes was defined as impaired fasting glucose according to the criteria of the American Diabetes Association (IFG-ADA; fasting glucose 5.6-6.9 mmol/L = 101-124 mg/dL), the WHO expert group (IFG-WHO; fasting glucose 6.1-6.9 mmol/L = 110-124 mg/dL), impaired glucose tolerance (2 hour plasma glucose concentration 7.8-11.0 mmol/L = 141-198 mg/dL during an oral glucose tolerance test), or raised haemoglobin A_1c (HbA_1c) of 39-47 mmol/mol [5.7-6.4%] according to ADA criteria or 42-47 mmol/mol [6.0-6.4%] according to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline."

Their data show that prediabetes with a 'mildly' elevated HgbA1c was clearly associated with increased cardiovascular risk:

"Compared with normoglycaemia, prediabetes (impaired glucose tolerance or impaired fasting glucose according to IFG-ADA or IFG-WHO criteria) was associated with an increased risk of composite cardiovascular disease (relative risk 1.13, 1.26, and 1.30 for IFG-ADA, IFG-WHO, and impaired glucose tolerance, respectively), coronary heart disease (1.10, 1.18, and 1.20, respectively), stroke (1.06, 1.17, and 1.20, respectively), and all cause mortality (1.13, 1.13 and 1.32, respectively). Increases in HBA_1c to 39-47 mmol/mol [5.7-6.4%] or 42-47 mmol/mol [6.0-6.4%] were both associated with an increased risk of composite cardiovascular disease (1.21 and 1.25, respectively) and coronary heart disease (1.15 and 1.28, respectively), but not with an increased risk of stroke and all cause mortality."

Interestingly, risk of stroke does not emerge from these data, suggesting other factors promoting vascular inflammation. The authors conclude:

"...we found that prediabetes defined as impaired fasting glucose or impaired glucose tolerance is associated with an increased risk of composite cardiovascular events, coronary heart disease, stroke, and all cause mortality. There was an increased risk in people with fasting plasma glucose as low as 5.6 mmol/L [100 mg/dL]. Additionally, the risk of composite cardiovascular events and coronary heart disease increased in people with raised HbA_1c. These results support the lower cut-off point for impaired fasting glucose according to ADA criteria as well as the incorporation of HbA_1c in defining prediabetes."

HgbA1c and risk of all-cause and cause-specific mortality without diabetes

Similar results were obtained in a study published in Scientific Reports. Here the authors concluded:

"We found evidence of a non-linear association between HbA_1c and mortality from all causes, CVD and cancer in this meta-analysis. The dose-response curves were relatively flat for HbA_1c less than around 5.7%, and rose steeply thereafter. This fact reveals a clear threshold effect for the association of HbA_1clevels with mortality. In addition, from the perspective of mortality benefit and health care burden, it suggests that the most appropriate HbA_1c level of initiating intervention is approximately 5.7%...higher HbA_1c level is associated with increased mortality from all causes, CVD, and cancer among subjects without known diabetes. However, this association is influenced by those with undiagnosed diabetes or prediabetes .Because of limited studies, the results in relation to cancer mortality should be treated with caution, and more studies are therefore warranted to investigate whether higher HbA_1c level is associated with increased cancer mortality."