The following is an Editorial Resource from YourTotalHealth.
News You Need To Know
Reviewed by: Abdou Elhendy, M.D., PhD, FACC, FAHA
New research continues to clarify what it is about cholesterol that presents danger and how HDLs can help your heart. As scientists gain a deeper understanding about cholesterol and all of its properties, prevention strategies become more specific and treatments become more targeted. Here are five new reports that might just change the way we think about cholesterol.
Size matters
Doctors have long observed that people who drink alcohol in moderation have higher levels of HDLs than teetotalers, but the reason was never clear. Now, a recent Harvard study of nearly 2,000 men and women finds that alcohol seems to facilitate the formation of larger particles of both HDLs and LDLs. Large HDLs particles appear better than smaller ones at fighting off heart disease. Although LDL causes heart disease, larger LDL particles appear to be less effective than smaller ones at causing it.
Doctors don’t recommend that you start drinking just to lower your cholesterol levels. But, if you already take a sip or two on occasion, lowering your cholesterol might be one more reason to raise a toast. Just keep your intake to no more than one drink a day if you are a woman or two drinks if you are a man. You can have 12 ounces of beer, 1-1/2 ounces of hard liquor, or 5 ounces of wine. More alcohol than that may raise your triglyceride levels and consequently your health risks. Drinking too much alcohol also imposes other health risks such as liver disease and increased risk of certain types of cancer.
Better screening
Computerized tomography, known as CT scans, can check the heart for calcium deposits and blockages, making it a useful tool for risk-assessment and predicting heart disease, according to a new study from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. The study found that one out of every seven people scanned needed to lower their cholesterol levels because they were actually at a higher risk of atherosclerosis than previously diagnosed.
Recently, the Screening for Heart Attack Prevention and Education (SHAPE) task force of cardiologists and researchers called for an update to current risk-assessment guidelines that includes broader use of CT scans. The technique can detect calcification within the coronary arteries which is associated with atherosclerosis and potentially arterial narrowing. One limitation of the technique is that some younger patients may have soft plaques without significant calcification and may therefore have a false-negative result.
Perils of passive smoke
Does your spouse need more incentive to quit smoking? A new study from China finds that non-smoking women whose husbands smoked for at least five years had lower HDL cholesterol, higher LDL cholesterol and other blood changes that put them at higher risk for heart disease than nonsmoking women with nonsmoking partners. This study echoed previous research from Harvard Medical School, which found that children at risk for high cholesterol tend to have lower HDLs if they grow up in homes where parents smoke. In fact, a review of multiple studies by the University of California estimated that secondhand smoke increases the risk of coronary heart disease by 30 percent — almost as much as active smoking.
Do kids need cholesterol tests?
The question of screening children for cholesterol levels has been popping up more frequently as levels of childhood obesity rise. Medical organizations, including the American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Family Physicians and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute have recommendations for screening children. Beginning at age two, children should be screened for cholesterol of they have a family history of high cholesterol or early heart disease. The family history would include a parent with a total cholesterol level over 240 or a parent or grandparent with diagnosed heart disease before age 55. Children who don’t have a family history of high cholesterol still need to be screened if they are overweight, have high blood pressure, diabetes, a poor diet or a sedentary lifestyle. Often, adopting healthier habits is enough to reverse cholesterol problems.
The big picture
High cholesterol is just one factor that increases your risks of dying from heart disease or stroke. But, when combined with other conditions like diabetes or high blood pressure, that risk rises dramatically. One new study from Harvard found that participants had a 22 percent higher risk of death if they met the criteria for “metabolic syndrome” — a cluster of symptoms that greatly raise heart disease risks, even when LDL cholesterol levels are within normal range. Ask your physician if you could be at risk for metabolic syndrome, which consists primarily of the following five symptoms (you need only three of five symptoms to qualify):
- Abdominal obesity — a waist circumference greater than 40 inches (102 centimeters) in men, 35 inches (89 centimeters) in women
- Triglyceride levels greater than 150 mg/dL
- HDL cholesterol less than 40 mg/dL for men and less than 50 mg/dL for women
- Blood pressure higher than 130/85 mmHg
- High blood sugar (a fasting glucose level of more than 100mg/dL)
What's Next: The Gender Gap
Review date: 06-25-2008
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