06/08/2026
Here's a finding that challenges the "lower LDL is always better" narrative — and it's one every patient on a statin or aggressive lipid-lowering protocol should know about.
A study published in Cardiovascular Diabetology followed adults with no prior history of type 2 diabetes or cardiovascular disease and tracked who developed diabetes over time. The result: those with the lowest LDL cholesterol levels (under 84 mg/dL) had the highest risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Overall, 13% of participants developed diabetes — but that number jumped to 20% among statin users, compared to just 6% among non-users. The relationship between lower LDL and higher diabetes risk held across the analysis.
This matters because current ACC/American Heart Association guidelines are pushing LDL targets below 70 mg/dL for many patients. That's an aggressive target, and findings like this are a reminder that optimizing one number in isolation can come with trade-offs elsewhere. Comprehensive cardiometabolic assessment — not just LDL — is the standard we apply at Nutritional Concepts.