VAT Trap Blog

Continuous glucose monitors are transforming diabetes care, but their insights may extend far beyond diabetic patients. Evidence suggests that post-meal glucose spikes and glucose variability may influence cardiovascular health. While definitive trials are still needed, CGMs offer a practical tool to help patients understand metabolic responses and adopt healthier dietary and lifestyle habits.

Numerous epidemiological studies have supported the hypothesis that high homocysteine levels are a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. For example, the Framingham Heart Study demonstrated that individuals with homocysteine levels in the top fifth percentile had a nearly doubled risk of developing coronary artery disease compared to those with levels in the bottom 80 percent.

The medical understanding of a “heart attack” can sometimes diverge from the layperson’s perception. Many people interpret a heart attack as any acute, potentially fatal cardiac event, regardless of its cause. This discrepancy necessitates a deeper exploration of heart attack causes unrelated to coronary artery disease, particularly for understanding familial risks and discussing preventative measures like statins.

Medicine must change in response to rising costs, growing complexity and workforce pressures. Doctors and health influencers must empower individuals to take responsibility for their own wellbeing. My role has evolved from fixing broken hearts to preventing them from breaking in the first place.

N-of-1 medicine shifts the focus from population averages to personal biology. This blog series explores how individuals can run simple, safe self-experiments — using themselves as the control — to test plausible health hypotheses, track meaningful outcomes, and discover what genuinely improves their own health and wellbeing over time.

A heart attack happens when the ‘holes’ in at least four layers align by chance. Understanding this model helps us realize that heart attack prevention involves more than dealing with just one factor, such as by taking a statin.

Written by Dr Edward Leatham, Consultant Cardiologist: Our metabolic health screen incorporates data processing to provide feedback to the patient on their GV status, using both graphical and numerical stats.

When blood sugar levels are consistently high, causing prediabetes and diabetes, the risk of conditions such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes increase in the long-term. It is easy to understand why the phenomenon of glucose spiking, where blood sugar levels surge and then fall back into the normal range after a meal, is also widely considered to be harmful.

Groundbreaking research from Oxford University reveals it is possible to detect and quantify ‘coronary inflammation’ – invisible to the human eye on conventional CT images, but detectable using artificial intelligence techniques.

Written by Dr Edward Leatham, Consultant Cardiologist: In this article, we shed light on various underlying factors that can lead to this cardiovascular emergency.