Read Online Food for Life: How the New Four Food Groups Can Save Your Life by M. D. Neal Barnard - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: M. D. Neal Barnard
Ads: Link
contained and transported.
The body has its own oil industry, as it were. The liver manufactures cholesterol and sends it out to be used in the manufacture of hormones and cell membranes and other important parts of the body. When cholesterol is transported in the bloodstream, it is packed into special containers called
low-density lipoproteins
(LDL) and
very low density lipoproteins
(VLDL). LDL is sometimes called the “bad cholesterol” because, although it is necessary in limited quantities, a high LDL cholesterol level can dramatically increase your risk of a heart attack.
LDL delivers cholesterol to various parts of the body. When cholesterol is released from dead cells, it is picked up for disposal in another kind of package called
high-density lipoprotein
(HDL), the “good cholesterol.” The more HDL you have, the lower your risk of a heart attack. Cholesterol levels are usually measured in milligrams of cholesterol per deciliter (mg/dl) of blood serum.
C HOLESTEROL: T HE 150 G OAL
If there were suddenly a huge influx of oil trucks coming from Canada or Mexico, statisticians could calculate how the risk of a deadly accident increases. The more oil trucks there are on the turnpike, the more likely a spill is to occur. The same is true of cholesterol. The more you have in your blood, the more likely you are to have a heart attack.
For four decades, the Framingham Heart Study has studied who gets heart attacks and who does not. Framingham is a small town outside Boston, which is like any other New England town except that it is a short drive from the Boston area universities. So its population has been studied by researchers for most of this century. If you had set up shop with these researchers, you would have seen something remarkable. For an entire year of the study, no one with a total cholesterol level below 150 mg/dl had a heart attack. The same thing happened the next year: not a single person whose cholesterol level was below 150 had a heart attack. And this continued the next year and the next. No one thought much about it at first. But after thirty-five years went by and no one whose cholesterol stayed below the 150 threshold ever had a heart attack, it began to seem pretty remarkable.
In many studies, researchers have found that higher levels of cholesterol are linked to higher risk. In fact, for every 1 percent increase in the amount of cholesterol in your blood, your risk of a heart attack rises by about 2 percent. That means that if your cholesterol were to go up 20 percent—say, from 200 mg/dl to 240 mg/dl—your risk of a heart attack would rise by 40 percent. 1 , 2
Happily, it’s a two-way street. If you lower your cholesterol, you get a two-for-one
improvement
in your risk. So if you lower your cholesterol level by 20 percent—say, from 200 down to 160—your risk goes down by 40 percent.
As your cholesterol level approaches 150, there is no statistical benefit to going lower. “We think there is a threshold in cholesterol, and that it’s 150,” says Dr. William Castelli, director of the Framingham Heart Study. “We’ve never had a heart attack in Framingham in thirty-five years in anyone who had a cholesterol under 150.” The ideal level, then, is below 150 mg/dl. At that point, heart attack is not impossible, but is very unlikely.
You might be asking, if 150 is the threshold, why do we hear that 200 is a desirable cholesterol level? The National Cholesterol Education Programset 200 as an arbitrary goal: levels below 200 mg/dl are called “desirable.” For higher levels, increasing degrees of medical scrutiny are indicated, and people with lower levels receive a measure of reassurance. Unfortunately, a lot of people whose cholesterol levels are 190 or 200 go on to have heart attacks. A level of 180 is better, and 170 better still, and so on until you reach about 150.
We know that 200 is not an ideal cholesterol level. In fact, it is quite close to the national average cholesterol
The body has its own oil industry, as it were. The liver manufactures cholesterol and sends it out to be used in the manufacture of hormones and cell membranes and other important parts of the body. When cholesterol is transported in the bloodstream, it is packed into special containers called
low-density lipoproteins
(LDL) and
very low density lipoproteins
(VLDL). LDL is sometimes called the “bad cholesterol” because, although it is necessary in limited quantities, a high LDL cholesterol level can dramatically increase your risk of a heart attack.
LDL delivers cholesterol to various parts of the body. When cholesterol is released from dead cells, it is picked up for disposal in another kind of package called
high-density lipoprotein
(HDL), the “good cholesterol.” The more HDL you have, the lower your risk of a heart attack. Cholesterol levels are usually measured in milligrams of cholesterol per deciliter (mg/dl) of blood serum.
C HOLESTEROL: T HE 150 G OAL
If there were suddenly a huge influx of oil trucks coming from Canada or Mexico, statisticians could calculate how the risk of a deadly accident increases. The more oil trucks there are on the turnpike, the more likely a spill is to occur. The same is true of cholesterol. The more you have in your blood, the more likely you are to have a heart attack.
For four decades, the Framingham Heart Study has studied who gets heart attacks and who does not. Framingham is a small town outside Boston, which is like any other New England town except that it is a short drive from the Boston area universities. So its population has been studied by researchers for most of this century. If you had set up shop with these researchers, you would have seen something remarkable. For an entire year of the study, no one with a total cholesterol level below 150 mg/dl had a heart attack. The same thing happened the next year: not a single person whose cholesterol level was below 150 had a heart attack. And this continued the next year and the next. No one thought much about it at first. But after thirty-five years went by and no one whose cholesterol stayed below the 150 threshold ever had a heart attack, it began to seem pretty remarkable.
In many studies, researchers have found that higher levels of cholesterol are linked to higher risk. In fact, for every 1 percent increase in the amount of cholesterol in your blood, your risk of a heart attack rises by about 2 percent. That means that if your cholesterol were to go up 20 percent—say, from 200 mg/dl to 240 mg/dl—your risk of a heart attack would rise by 40 percent. 1 , 2
Happily, it’s a two-way street. If you lower your cholesterol, you get a two-for-one
improvement
in your risk. So if you lower your cholesterol level by 20 percent—say, from 200 down to 160—your risk goes down by 40 percent.
As your cholesterol level approaches 150, there is no statistical benefit to going lower. “We think there is a threshold in cholesterol, and that it’s 150,” says Dr. William Castelli, director of the Framingham Heart Study. “We’ve never had a heart attack in Framingham in thirty-five years in anyone who had a cholesterol under 150.” The ideal level, then, is below 150 mg/dl. At that point, heart attack is not impossible, but is very unlikely.
You might be asking, if 150 is the threshold, why do we hear that 200 is a desirable cholesterol level? The National Cholesterol Education Programset 200 as an arbitrary goal: levels below 200 mg/dl are called “desirable.” For higher levels, increasing degrees of medical scrutiny are indicated, and people with lower levels receive a measure of reassurance. Unfortunately, a lot of people whose cholesterol levels are 190 or 200 go on to have heart attacks. A level of 180 is better, and 170 better still, and so on until you reach about 150.
We know that 200 is not an ideal cholesterol level. In fact, it is quite close to the national average cholesterol
Similar Books
