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Show 1 Reducing Heart Attack Risks alt: I0J It of By DALE NELSON Professor Utah State University Everyone should be aware of "The first study to demons-ihee' demons-ihee' irate conclusively that the risk loJ, of coronary heart disease can jlq be reduced by lowering blood j4. cholesterol . " " recently re- ' ported in the media. uniii. 'fc THE FACT that a drug cal- g if Id cholestyramine was used ino1 tolower the cholesterol in half ofthe 3.806 men studied over a e,f. 10 year period should not res- irict our evaluation of the re- W . The main point is that mC;' people with lower cholesterol to' levels have far fewer heart mill' "neks. And, I hasten to add S, fa lhe blood cholesterol jl Ms we have been consider- . '. relatively safe are far too lhl high. :tm For example, in the 20 year 10' Framingham study three fourths of the "heart" deaths were people whose cholesterol levels were between 150 and 300 milligrams percent, usually usual-ly considered" normal. Other data lend credence to the fact that people whose cholesterol levels are under 150 milligrams percent don't die of heart disease. dis-ease. FRAMINGHAM also found that beyond the age of 50, total cholesterol loses its power to predict. Consequently, it is much more accurate to discuss the lipid composition (lipoproteins) (lipopro-teins) as predictors of atherosclerosis. ather-osclerosis. The low density lipoprotein-cholesterol lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) is the bad kind, whereas the high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) (HDL-C) works favorably for us to free the LDL-C from the cells so that it can get in the circulation circula-tion and eventually be proces sed by the liver. We have about ab-out four times more LDL-C (bad kind) than we need, so it is a Herculean job for the HDL-C (good kind) to help in its elimination. elimi-nation. That's why anything we do to raise HDL-C and lower low-er LDL-C is the safe route to go. THE USE of drugs is probably prob-ably the least desirable course of action, but it should not be ruled out for some people. Dietary manipulation should be a part of one's lifestyle, although this area is highly unpredictable un-predictable in lowering cholesterol. choles-terol. As an example, researchers studied a group of vegetarians and found that those on a high fat diet had much higher cholesterol levels than the vegetarians on low fat diets. But when the study looked at specific egg intake, they found that those vegetarians who ate lots of eggs did not have an average cholesterol level higher high-er than those, who went easy on eggs. ANOTHER study looked at a group of body builders who ate up to a dozen eggs a day. It showed that their cholesterol levels weren't affected by the eggs. How do we account for these unexpected differences? Scientists are now saying that fit people move cholesterol cholester-ol out of the blood better than the unfit. We have know this for some time. There is plenty of data showing that exercise raises the HDL-C and lowers the LDL-C. So, it is obvious to me that exercise (a good variety varie-ty of daily activity) is the way to live if one wants to lower blood cholesterol and have the best insurance against atherosclerosis. |