Word: ldl
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...follow medical news even casually, you have probably heard about homocysteine. Over the past few years, this amino acid, produced in the body, has been implicated as an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease--maybe even more important than LDL, or "bad cholesterol." According to many studies, elevated homocysteine levels can triple the chance that you'll get heart disease and significantly increase your risk of stroke--and maybe of Alzheimer's disease as well. Researchers even have a plausible explanation: homocysteine seems to damage the internal walls of the arteries--a major source of cardiovascular problems...
...saturated fats carry a full quota of hydrogen atoms in their chemical structure, and unsaturated fats do not). Such products as tallow, lard and butter are saturated fats, whereas those like soybean, canola, olive, cottonseed, corn and other vegetable oils are unsaturated. Saturated fats are associated with increases in LDL cholesterol (the bad kind); unsaturated fats can bring that number down...
...however, the result was quite the opposite. That's because hydrogenated fats contain a kind of hydrogen bond called trans that is as bad as the hydrogen bond in saturated fats--maybe even worse, according to CNN dietitian Liz Weiss, an expert on family nutrition. While saturated fats raise ldl cholesterol, Weiss explains, "trans fats appear to both raise bad (LDL) cholesterol and lower the good (HDL) cholesterol." The FDA does not currently require vendors to label foods for trans-fatty-acid content, but the agency has new rules in the works that would force McDonald's and others...
Fats too are gaining new respect. Olives, nuts, avocados and other foods that are rich in mono- and polyunsaturated fat belong in our diets, many nutritionists believe. Not only do these good fats help lower the level of LDL, or bad, cholesterol, but they are also essential for the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins like...
...when natural estrogens stop flowing after menopause, women's risk quickly catches up to men's. Clearly estrogen has some kind of positive influence. And sure enough, a number of studies in the 1980s showed that women who took the hormone at menopause had lower levels of LDL cholesterol, the so-called bad cholesterol, and higher levels of HDL, the so-called good cholesterol, than those who didn't. The benefits of supplemental estrogen couldn't be more obvious...