The pathology of atherosclerosis in diabetes is the same as anyone else, it involves the same inflammatory processes, and many of the same risk factors [4]. There are a few specific things that differ – and those things will be highlighted in this article.

Cholesterol in Heart Disease

The role cholesterol plays in heart disease is a confusing one. If you need to review the basics, please check out our articles on LDL & HDL.

In a nut shell:

1. LDL-C comes in two forms – light/fluffy and small/dense. The small, dense LDL molecules are more dangerous and come with more cardiovascular disease risk. We want to minimize the small, sense LDL molecules to minimize heart disease risk.
2. HDL-C is protective of heart disease. We want to increase HDL-C to protect heart health.

To learn more about how blood vessels are affected in diabetics, please click here.

Cholesterol in Diabetics

In type 2 diabetics, they typically don’t have an elevated LDL-C, but rather a characteristic dyslipidemia of high triglycerides, low HDL and a small, dense LDL profile [4].

Why Does This Matter?

Well firstly, we can measure LDL particle size and density, in addition to the usual LDL-C measurement through specialized blood work.

Beyond that we know there are specific ways to increase HDL and specific ways to improve the LDL profile (make large fluffy molecules instead of small, dense ones).

Click the links below to read more about these topics.