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Heart Health

Protecting Your Heart and Blood Vessels

Heart health is especially important for people with diabetes, who face 2-4 times higher risk of heart disease than others. High and fluctuating blood sugar damages blood vessels over time, while chronically elevated insulin contributes to high blood pressure and stiff arteries. Managing blood sugar, reducing insulin resistance, and addressing inflammation are key to protecting your heart. Emerging research challenges some conventional wisdom about cholesterol and saturated fat, suggesting that metabolic health markers like triglycerides and insulin levels may be more important predictors of heart disease risk.

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  Research (5)

5-Year effects of a novel continuous remote care model with carbohydrate-restricted nutrition therapy including nutritional ketosis in type 2 diabetes: An extension study

A L McKenzie, S J Athinarayanan, Van Tieghem MR, B M Volk, C G Roberts, R N Adams, J S Volek, S D Phinney, S J Hallberg

Diabetes research and clinical practice 2024

A 5‑year very‑low‑carb, remote‑care program for type 2 diabetes showed durable benefits: 20% remission among completers, 33% reached HbA1c <6.5% with no meds or only metformin, alongside less medication and improved heart‑risk markers.

Low Carbohydrate Dietary Approaches for People With Type 2 Diabetes—A Narrative Review

Sean D Wheatley, Trudi A Deakin, Nicola C Arjomandkhah, Paul B Hollinrake, Trudi E Reeves

Frontiers in Nutrition 2021

Low-carb diets match or beat low-fat for Type 2 diabetes—often cutting meds and improving HbA1c—without evidence of increased cardiovascular risk.

Small Dense Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol and the Risk of Coronary Heart Disease in a Japanese Community

Mayu Higashioka, Satoko Sakata, Takanori Honda, Jun Hata, Daigo Yoshida, Yoichiro Hirakawa, Mao Shibata, Kenichi Goto, Takanari Kitazono, Haruhiko Osawa, Toshiharu Ninomiya

Journal of Atherosclerosis and Thrombosis 2020

Small, dense LDL—not total LDL—best flagged future heart disease risk. Even with normal LDL, high sdLDL doubled risk.

Small Dense Low-Density Lipoprotein-Cholesterol Concentrations Predict Risk for Coronary Heart Disease

Ron C Hoogeveen, John W Gaubatz, Wensheng Sun, Rhiannon C Dodge, Jacy R Crosby, Jennifer Jiang, David Couper, Salim S Virani, Sekar Kathiresan, Eric Boerwinkle, Christie M Ballantyne

Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology 2014

Small, dense LDL exposes hidden heart risk: it predicts events even when LDL looks “normal.”