Word: ldl
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...current craze stems from studies showing that oats, particularly oat bran, can have a salutary effect on blood levels of total cholesterol and, even better, of the "bad" type of cholesterol known as LDL (low-density lipoprotein). Researchers have found that consuming 1 1/2 to 3 oz. of oat bran daily for six to eight weeks can lower total cholesterol some 20% and LDLs as much as 25%. "It's great stuff," says Dr. James Anderson of the University of Kentucky, who pioneered the study of oat bran in the 1970s. Anderson estimates that up to 85% of Americans with...
...distinct types of cholesterol: low-density lipoproteins, or LDLs, and a variant known as high-density lipoproteins, or HDLs. LDLs are the villains of cardiology: these complex molecules ferry cholesterol through the blood vessels, allowing life-threatening deposits to accumulate within artery walls. Each 1% decrease in LDL levels lowers the risk of heart disease 2%. The "good" HDLs work as garbage trucks, sopping up excess cholesterol and inhibiting arterial deposits. Basically, these two substances make up the total human blood- cholesterol level, an indicator that signals vulnerability to coronary illness...
...study shows that raising HDL levels also leads to a decreased risk of heart disease. Each of the participants, while otherwise healthy, was chosen for his high overall cholesterol level. Starting in 1981, doctors gave half the test group gemfibrozil, which, among other effects, increases HDL while moderately lowering LDL. The other half received a placebo. More than 82,000 visits to the clinic and 500,000 blood tests later, the LDL levels of the men given gemfibrozil had dropped 8% and their HDL levels had risen more than...
...Finns ruled out every potential cause for the benefit except higher HDL levels. Says Antonio Gotto, a cholesterol expert at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston: "The garden- variety person with cardiovascular disease, maybe 60% of heart-attack patients, has a low HDL level and only a moderately high LDL level. Changing HDL levels will be very important for them...
What the Helsinki study does make clear is that treatment to lessen the risk of heart attacks should concentrate as much on raising deficient HDL levels as on lowering dangerous LDL levels. That conclusion alone could point to longer life and better health for thousands each year...