Word: hdl
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
There is evidence to support such optimism. Studies have shown that running-indeed, all strenuous exercise-can elevate the blood levels of a form of cholesterol called high-density lipoprotein (HDL). This substance helps remove other, more harmful types of cholesterol from the body and presumably reduces the chances of such materials building up in the arteries. Studying 218 marathoners, joggers and nonrunners, G. Harley Hartung of the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston found that the marathoners had the highest level of HDL. Other factors may be at work; marathoners tend to be relaxed, eat healthful foods, not smoke...
...Because HDL usually accounts for only a small portion of the blood's store of lipoproteins-perhaps no more than 20% in most adults (but as much as 50% in infants)-doctors long felt that it could not have any really significant effect on total cholesterol levels. Now they are being forced to reconsider that view. Some researchers believe lipoproteins not only carry off cholesterol but may actually help flush away fatty deposits from plaque on arterial walls...
...program should be directed, at least in part, toward raising the supply of these "good" cholesterol-disposing HDLs in the bloodstream, as opposed to the "bad" cholesterol-depositing LDLs. Some tactics for doing that are already available. At Stanford University, researchers have discovered that middle-aged male runners have HDL levels nearly 50% higher than their peers; their levels might be mistaken for those of young women, who are naturally endowed with more HDL and seldom have heart attacks. Other studies have shown that shedding flab and following a diet rich in vegetables and vegetable oils...
...Honolulu, San Francisco, Evans County, Ga., and Albany, N.Y.-Statistician Tavia Gordon of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., noticed an unusual correlation. Virtually all those with heart disease-regardless of age, sex or racial background-also had reduced levels of a substance called high-density lipoprotein (HDL) in their blood. By contrast, those free of atherosclerosis showed remarkably elevated HDL counts...
...VLDL). They carry some cholesterol but mainly other fats to various parts of the body. The slightly heavier low-density lipoproteins (LDL) move cholesterol from cell to cell, where it is used to produce sex hormones, among other things. Any excess cholesterol is picked up by the heaviest lipoproteins, HDL, which, like garbage trucks, haul it off to the liver for disposal...