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Show page Three THE EUREKA (UTAH) REPORTER August 27, 1965 New operation may be check on cholesterol One way to save a man's heart may be through his in testines. So says Dr. Henry Buchwald, an Established Investigator of the American Heart Association at the University of Minnesota Medical School, who has developed an operation to shorten the small intestine as a means of increasing the elimination of cholestral, thereby lowering the amount in the bloodstream. High levels of cholcsteral and other fats are associated with an increased risk of heart attacks. Whether a drop in cholesterol levels will lessen the risk is still open to question, however. The operation devised by Dr. Buchwald creates a detour around the lower third of the small intestine, the site where most of the cholesterol taken in through the diet or made by the body is normally absorbed into the blood. As the result of the operation, instead of entering the bloodstream, the cholesterol passes into the large intestine and is excreted. Recently Dr. Buchwald gath ered preliminary evidence that in rabbits this intestinal bypass surgery not only causes to drop levels cholesteral sharply but apparently also arrests the development of atherosclerosis. (Atherosclerosis is g the process of or clogging which sets the stage for heart attacks and artery-hardenin- strokes). after having Since 1963 established in laboratory animals that a similar operation did lower clood cholesterol Dr. Buchwld and his associate. Dr. Richard Varco, have performed intestinal surgery on 15 patients. Most were in their 30's and 40s, had very high cholesterol levels and had al In the blazing hot converters at Kennecotts smelter, molten copper at a temperature of 2100 degrees Fahrenheit is processed to remove impurities. One of these impurities is sulfur dioxide, a gas thats captured in flues and transferred to Kennecotts acid plant where its used to produce sulfuric acid. A local chemical company combines this acid rock with two other Utah products-phosph- ate EfeimecM (Scjpjpez ready had one or more heart attacks. Three patients were operated upon who had not yet had a heart attack but who seemed to run an especially high risk. Each of these patients had an excessively high blood cholesterol level and belonged to a family with a history of many heait attacks. Following surgery all patients showed a significant drop in cholesterol levels averaging about 40 per cent. From levels of 280 to 600 (milligrams per cent), their cholesterol readings have fallen to a mean of about 200 postoper-ativelThe average figure in the U. S. is about 230. Dr. Buchwald said in an in y. terview that surgery was not performed in these patients until every dietary means of reducing cholesterol levels had been tried. He added that it is still too early to tell whether the operation will help halt the atherosclerotic process in these patients as it appears to have done in rabbits. The mallee fowl of Australia, which lives in a climate with extreme changes in temperature, keeps its eggs at a constant temperature by varying the depth of the soil which insulates them from cold and protects them from sun according to Natural History mined in the Vernal area, and ammonia, a byproduct of steel making. From these materials, bom in the earth, comes a fertilizer that goes back into the earth to help Utah farm land produce a more bounteous harvest. Made in Utah by Utahns for Utahns, this product typifies the industrial enterprise and teamwork that is a bulwark of strength for the economy of the entire state. (Scsjcmi&m Utah Copper Division "An Equal Opportunity Employer l |