Glucose Revolution: The Life-Changing Power of Balancing Your Blood Sugar

by Jessie Inchauspé

Doctors can better measure heart disease risk by looking at what’s called the triglycerides-to-HDL ratio (which tells us about the presence of the small, dense LDL pattern B), and C-reactive protein (which tells us about inflammation levels). Triglycerides become LDL pattern B in our bodies. So by measuring triglycerides, we can gauge the amount of the problematic LDL pattern B in our system. If you divide the level of triglycerides (in mg/dL) by HDL level (in mg/dL), you’ll get a ratio that is surprisingly accurate in predicting LDL size. If the result is smaller than 2, that’s ideal. If the result is above 2, it can be problematic. Then, because inflammation is a key driver of heart disease, measuring C-reactive protein, which increases as inflammation does, is better at predicting heart disease than cholesterol levels.