Death by chocolate 

High blood glucose levels are putting half of adults at higher risk of fatal heart attacks, says a UK study 

Half of adults have increased risk of fatal heart attacks and strokes because of raised blood glucose levels, according to a UK study. But the vast majority of these people would not be classed as diabetic.

Kay-Tee Khaw and her team at Cambridge University identified 4,662 men aged 45 to 79 who had had their blood glucose concentration measured in 1995 as part of the European Prospective Investigation of Cancer and Nutrition in Norfolk. 

They found that risk of death from all causes, but from heart disease in particular, increased with increasing blood glucose concentrations. Some 82 per cent of the deaths were associated with increased blood glucose, but at levels below those required for a diagnosis of diabetes. 

"Even mildly elevated blood glucose seems to predict cardiovascular disease," Khaw told New Scientist.

Khaw says blood glucose should be considered alongside high cholesterol and high blood pressure as a significant factor in heart disease. Reducing the blood glucose concentration in the whole population by just 0.2 per cent would reduce overall mortality by 10 per cent, she says.  

"This is quite a revelation," says Norma McGough of the charity Diabetes UK. "Research has shown that people with diabetes have a higher risk of cardiac complications. But it is interesting that they have implicated people not considered to have diabetic levels of glucose." 

 Under the limit 

Khaw's team used levels of glycated haemoglobin - haemoglobin molecules with glucose attached - to give an average of blood glucose levels over the previous three months. 

They controlled for age, blood pressure, cholesterol concentration, weight, smoking and a history of stroke or heart attack. 

Men with glycated haemoglobin concentrations of above seven per cent would be classed as diabetic, and 18 per cent of the deaths associated with raised blood glucose levels were of diabetic men. 

But 82 per cent were in men with concentrations of between five and seven per cent. This accounted for three-quarters of all those studied. Half of the general population probably has a glycated haemoglobin concentration above five per cent, says Khaw. 

The relationship between blood glucose level and risk of death was least strong in people with concentrations below five per cent.

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