We’re all getting that sugar is bad for us – and this week it just got worse with news that high levels of glucose, the sugar in our blood, makes blood vessels contract or narrow, causing extra pressure on the heart
And there seems to be a direct association between levels of glucose and the amount of contraction: in other words, the higher the amount of glucose in the blood, the greater the blood vessels contract.
This can cause stress on the heart, hypertension (raised blood pressure) and starve organs of blood supply, say researchers at the University of Leicester who made the discovery.
A person whose glucose levels are high at a time when he or she is suffering a heart attack could die or have complications, the researchers say. Glucose levels rise naturally anyway during a heart attack – in a biological process known as the stress response – and so people whose levels are already high could suffer a fatal attack.
(Source: British Journal of Pharmacology, 2015; doi: 10.1111/bph.13399)
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