Hyperinsulinemia, a condition that precedes diabetes, signals that the body is not using insulin efficiently to regulate blood sugar levels. Men with hyperinsulinemia were more likely to have a heart attack than men with normal insulin levels. However, this link may not be due to high insulin levels themselves, the researchers caution. But the link may be due to other heart risk factors that tend to occur in patients with hyperinsulinemia, such as high blood pressure, obesity, and high blood levels of blood fats such as triglycerides. Overall, the ability of insulin levels to predict a heart attack was of the same magnitude as that of cholesterol.

Circulation August 4, 1998;98:398-404.

COMMENT: Yet more support for the low grain approach advocated in the Heller's book The Carbohydrate Addict Lifespan Program. I normally recommend this book with the caution that one should not have the reward meal they mention if you are treating high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes or cancer. The researchers apparently do not recognize that it is high insulin levels that actually cause the high blood pressure, obesity and elevated cholesterol and triglyceride levels.