The more we learn, the more we know, and the more we realize the importance of preventive health care.
Prediabetes and Type 2 diabetes are known risk factors for heart and blood vessel disease in adults, and prediabetes is now a known risk factor for such disease in adolescents.
Researchers at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in the United States looked at prediabetic adolescents to learn their risk of developing heart and blood vessel disease.
Their study, reported in the Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism in January 2014,included:

• 102 obese young people with prediabetes and
• 139 obese young people with normal blood sugar levels.
  

It was found the participants with prediabetes had higher blood pressure and narrower carotid arteries than did obese adolescents with normal blood sugar.
From these results it was concluded preventing prediabetes is important to reduce the number of adolescents at risk for heart and blood vessel disease...

• Type 2 diabetes is diagnosed in people with fasting blood sugar levels of at least 136 mg/dL (7.
  5 mmol/L).
  
• Prediabetes is diagnosed when blood sugar levels fall between 100 and 125 mg/dL (5.
  5 and 6.
  9 mmol/L).
  

Diagnosis of diabetes by HbA1c levels requires a level of at least 6.
5 percent.
HbA1c levels between 5.
7 and 6.
4 percent indicate prediabetes.
Type 2 diabetics usually go through a period of having prediabetes before they develop full-blown diabetes.
The American Diabetes Association suggests modest goals for reducing the risk of progressing from prediabetes to Type 2 diabetes by 58 percent.
The first goal is to:

• reduce weight by 7 percent, or 15 pounds (6.
  8 kilogram) in an individual weighing 200 pounds (91 kilogram).
  

The other suggestion is to:

• walk briskly or perform some equivalent aerobic exercise for 30 minutes a day, five days a week.
  

Of course, normalizing weight and performing as much exercise as is safe for each person, will lower the risk even further.
Reducing weight to normal limits and carrying out regular exercise can help lower and stabilize blood sugar levels in many prediabetic and Type 2 diabetics.
Fat cells, especially those in the abdomen, release hormones involved in regulating fat and carbohydrates.
Emptying the cells lowers their hormone output - lowering blood sugar.
Physical action not only uses up calories but helps cells to take in more sugar and burn it for energy.
Having normal blood sugar levels means being free from prediabetes and Type 2 diabetes.
As the risk for developing Type 2 diabetes lowers, so does the risk for heart and blood vessel disease.