My Uncle’s Heart Attack Came as a Total Shock

What came out of nowhere may have been hiding in plain sight

Mar 19, 2026

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My Uncle’s Heart Attack Came as a Total Shock

My uncle had a heart attack last week. Thankfully, he’s doing well now.

But it was a huge shock for our family.

He eats well. He has always been active. He is not the kind of person most people would immediately picture when they think of someone at high cardiovascular risk.

The one major factor? Type 2 diabetes.

Years ago, he used to consume a lot of sugar every single day. Then he began feeling unwell. He was waking up multiple times each night to urinate, which was unusual for him. My aunt and cousins urged him to go to the hospital.

What he had was a hyperosmolar hyperglycemic state — a serious and potentially life-threatening complication of diabetes — with a blood glucose level above 600 mg/dL.

Since then, he has made major changes. He now eats much healthier and takes the medications he needs.

Sugar’s “Velcro Effect” Inside Your Arteries

Very few people know this, but sugar has a kind of “Velcro effect” inside the arteries.

When blood sugar is high too often, glucose can stick to proteins and fats in your blood and tissues, forming advanced glycation end products (AGEs). These AGEs can promote endothelial dysfunction (the earliest stage of artery injury) and increase inflammation and oxidative stress in the vessel wall.

And here’s the “Velcro” part:

Sugar can also glycate LDL particles (the apoB “bad cholesterol” carriers), making them more likely to become dysfunctional and contribute to plaque formation. In diabetes, LDL is more prone to glycation, which can make it more atherogenic—more likely to participate in the artery-wall process that builds plaque.

Translation: If your blood sugar is frequently high, your artery wall becomes more irritated and “sticky,” and the conditions that allow plaque to grow get stronger.