Newswise — Current guidelines around healthy blood glucose levels may need a re-think, according to UCLA Health experts, as research shows that patients with blood sugar levels on the higher side of “normal” are associated with a notable increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
This hasn’t received as much attention as you would think, said , a professor of cardiology at the , who reviewed two decades of research in a recent editorial in American Heart Journal.
Dr. Fonarow points to a 2012 study that showed there was double the cardiovascular risk in individuals with fasting plasma glucose readings of 95-99 mg/dL, compared with values below 80 mg/dL. A in 2019 by researchers in Denmark and Michigan revealed that the risk was also higher with increased variability within “normal” levels of HbA1c (a three-month average of blood sugar).
With these findings in mind, Dr. Fonarow and his co-author, Moein Ebrahimi, MD, have proposed a revised classification of glucose levels that breaks down the normal range into lower and higher levels of glucose and associated cardiovascular risk.
Would you be interested in speaking to Dr. Fonarow about what people with high “normal” glucose levels can do to protect their heart health and how this research might inspire changes to glucose level classifications?
Best,
Alana Prisco
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