Researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas said their findings are proof that lowering LDL "bad" cholesterol at an early age is critical to preventing heart disease, strokes and other afflictions later in life.

In a study of more than 12,000 adults, the reason for many of their lifelong low levels of LDL "bad" cholesterol may be in their genes. A gene mutation allows certain people to enjoy low cholesterol levels from the time they are born because the gene affects how well the liver washes "bad" cholesterol from the blood, according to the study in March's New England Journal of Medicine.

The researchers said African Americans and whites with the gene mutation and whose average LDL levels stood at 100 were eight times less likely and half as likely respectively to suffer heart attacks or get clogged arteries than people without the mutation.

'Key message'

Health experts say that any level of "bad" cholesterol less than 100 is ideal.

"The key message of this is that if you keep your cholesterol low throughout your whole lifetime, your chances of getting heart disease are quite low," said Scott Grundy, who directs UT-Southwestern's Center for Human Nutrition. "What we do now is treat people when they get into trouble, but what this does is encourage people to do something about it earlier.

"It also shows the benefit of maintaining a low cholesterol level throughout life. The foundation for keeping low blood cholesterol is a reduced intake of saturated fats and cholesterol and maintaining a desirable body weight. But in some people it may be necessary to add drugs to reduce cholesterol levels. Fortunately, newer cholesterol-lowering drugs have been developed that are both effective and safe for most people."

'Good' cholesterol and its sticky evil twin
A soft, waxy substance made by the body's liver and obtained from animal products, cholesterol is essential for the body to produce hormones, bile acid that aids in food digestion, and Vitamin D. While coursing through the blood veins, cholesterol links up with fatty acids to form "good" and "bad" cholesterol.

Getting "bad" cholesterol out of your blood is good, because it can stick together in arteries, eventually shutting off the blood supply to the brain and heart, and leading to heart attacks, strokes and other problems.

By contrast, HDL "good" cholesterol protects against heart disease by keeping its sticky evil twin from clogging the arteries. Another "bad" thing to have in the blood is a high level of "triglycerides," another form of fat in the blood that can boost the risk of heart disease.

The American Heart Association advises people 20 and over to get their cholesterol levels measured at least once every five years via a "lipoprotein profile" at their doctors' offices. For more information on cholesterol and what affects the levels, click here.

And to read about how to banish "bad" carbs, click here.

Start monitoring early
Meanwhile, the UT-Southwestern's researchers advise that people should start monitoring their cholesterol levels very early in life and take steps then to ward off heart disease later in life, but they're not sure how early to start. That's going to take further study, they added.

Still, health experts urge parents to ensure their young children develop proper eating and exercise habits. To read a Nubella article about how parents, grandparents and other adults can set good examples for children, click here.

Dr. Jonathan Cohen, one of the researchers, said the findings could mean that doctors treat high "bad" cholesterol levels differently in patients by designing medicine that keys on the gene present in all people but mutated in only some.

In an editorial accompanying the study, Alan Tall, a molecular medicine and atherosclerosis expert at New York City's Columbia University Medical Center, said the most common medication for high cholesterol levels - drugs called "statins" - help slash the risk of heart problems, but help only a third of the people.

"The new findings suggest the need to redouble our efforts to reduce LDL cholesterol levels in younger persons by promoting healthy diets and reducing obesity," Tall wrote. "Even small successes will probably be leveraged for later gains in lowering the risk of cardiovascular disease."

Editor's Note: This article includes information from the Dallas Morning News.

Source: Nubella News
Posted by: Steve Smith
Reference: New England Journal of Medicine
Website: www.nubella.com

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