What Your Doctor Doesn’t Tell You About Blood Sugar and Cholesterol
Why Blood Sugar and Cholesterol Levels Are More Connected Than You Think
I’m going to get a little spicy on this one guys. I think what I’m about to tell you should be common knowledge, yet I get so many people telling me that they are worried about their blood sugar and cholesterol labs. Then their doctor goes and tells them not to worry or gives them incredibly vague advice. It’s frustrating to think you are doing everything “right” and eating a healthy diet but your blood sugar and high LDL cholesterol or triglycerides or low HDL just. won’t. budge. The truth is, there is a direct link between conditions like prediabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol. Your body doesn't treat these numbers as separate issues—and neither should you. Understanding how blood sugar and cholesterol work together could be the missing piece that finally makes sense of your health puzzle and transforms how you approach both.
Are you ready to discover the connection? Let’s go ala Ms. Frizzle and the Magic School bus and the one time they got trapped in that kid’s body (speaking to my geriatric millennials out there. I see you, I feel you, I’m here for you).
How blood sugar affects cholesterol
First and foremost on our tour of the body: we are stopping at the pancreas that produces insulin in response to high blood sugar. If blood sugar levels are consistently high due to stress, lack of sleep, high intake of refined and processed carbohydrates and alcohol, the body is going to produce high levels of insulin to try to store this sugar in the cells. Additionally, excess glucose is going to get stored as triglycerides in the liver so that they can be converted into energy down the road. However, if there is chronically high insulin and blood sugar, those triglyceride particles just keep stacking up. This process also reduces HDL and increases VLDL which isn’t exactly what we want as it puts us at higher risk for heart disease.
The role of insulin resistance
Over time, cells become less responsive to insulin and can lead to insulin resistance where they just stop responding at all, kind of like when your mom starts calling you multiple times a day so the phone goes on silent. Both high blood sugar and problematic cholesterol patterns often stem from insulin resistance. When cells become less responsive to insulin, the body produces more insulin to compensate. This excess insulin promotes fat storage and alters how the liver processes both glucose and lipids, leading to elevated blood sugar and unfavorable cholesterol profiles.
What about other factors?
Continuing our tour around the body through the blood vessels, we find that high blood sugar also triggers inflammation and oxidative stress which just means it is increasing the risk of damaging arteries and cells. If arteries are damaged and inflamed, cholesterol likes to come in and be deposited to help seal the damage. That’s right, it does serve a good purpose! All of the above risk factors decrease something called nitric oxide, which is a molecule that helps expand our blood vessels and keep blood flowing. That’s one of the reasons high blood pressure fits into this picture as well.
If we traveled out of the blood vessels our next stop would actually be the gut and the intestines! We’re learning a lot about gut health and the microbiome and its role in blood sugar and cholesterol management. This will probably be a whole separate blog post so stay tuned. Eventually we work our way out of the body through my niece’s favorite word: poop.
So let’s recap. How does this look in terms of fixing the underlying issues?
Diabetes or prediabetes management
Heart disease prevention
Metabolic syndrome treatment
Hypertension support
Insulin resistance reversal
People with diabetes have significantly higher rates of heart disease, partly because the combination of high blood sugar and poor cholesterol profiles accelerates atherosclerosis (artery hardening). This is why managing both is crucial for cardiovascular health.
The relationship is bidirectional - improving one often helps the other, which is why comprehensive lifestyle approaches focusing on diet, exercise, and weight management are so effective for metabolic health overall.
If you’re ready to get started on your own Magic School Bus journey sign up for a meet and greet here.
If you want a completely free one week meal plan that addresses metabolic health and inflammation but also tastes good check it out here!
