The sugar hypothesis of heart disease triumphs yet again over the lipid hypothesis. A study presented recently in Rome and published in the New England Journal of Medicine demonstrates that efforts to lower blood sugar pay off better in lower rates of heart disease and longer life than do efforts to lower cholesterol.  In fact, to be ruthlessly honest about it, efforts to lower blood sugar do seem pay off whereas efforts to lower cholesterol don’t much at all.

Researchers presented data from a long-term study (almost 30 years long) showing that subjects who lowered their blood sugar levels with drugs for a period of 10 years reaped large rewards in terms of reduced incidence of heart attack and reduced incidence of all-cause mortality long after the end of the study.

Here is how the study was done:

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I’m always amazed at how the lipid hypothesis of heart disease has wormed its way deep into souls of physicians, scientists, and medical/nutritional writers the world over. The most flimsy piece of research that seems to confirm this entrenched bias is not only accepted uncritically (not by yours truly, of course), but shouted from the rooftops by the likes of USA Today, the New York Times, Reuters, and other general publications.

Then along comes a study with some true value that, although published in a prestigious journal, is vigorously ignored. Such seems to be the fate of a tremendous piece of research appearing in the current issue of Diabetes Care. Since this journal, like JAMA, makes available to the public the full text of articles its editors deem of significant public health importance, you can get the article in its entirety here.

Researchers at University College in London looked at the mortality data generated over the past 33 years from the Whitehall Study, which, like the Women’s Health Initiative, is a large, government funded study. In the Whitehall Study
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