Tag: hdl cholesterol

• PCSK9 Gene – Reduces Cholesterol and Heart Disease Mortality

  High levels of cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol are associated with a higher risk of heart disease.

  Popular commentators frequently claim that cholesterol is irrelevant in causing heart disease and suggest that diets high in carbohydrate such as rice, potatoes, wheat (including whole-grain wheat), yams, millet and buckwheat are responsible.

  PCSK9 is a gene that reduces the life-time level of cholesterol. PCSK9 is an abbreviation for "proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 serine protease" gene which is why it is much more convenient to refer it as the PCSK9 gene.

  The authors' conclusion is the "data indicate that moderate lifelong reduction in the plasma level of LDL cholesterol is associated with a substantial reduction in the incidence of coronary events."

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  28 March 2024

• Moderation is a Fatal Thing

  Everything in moderation is a near unanimous response by health professional, health support organisations and media commentators to solving our health crisis.

  The same argument was used in in the 1950s and 1960s to convince people to reduce smoking. After all, you would not want to deprive people of the “solace, relaxation and enjoyment to mankind” that smoking has provided for more than 300 years. These days, doctors do not suggest that people reduce smoking but to stop.

  One problem is that moderation cannot be defined. One person may consider a hamburger or packet of cigarettes a week as being moderate. This can easily become two hamburgers a week or just one more cigarette.

  Doing things in moderation does not change a habit. To change a habit requires consistency and commitment over a period of several weeks or months.

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  5 January 2019

• Dr William Roberts – Causes of Heart Disease from an Expert

  William Roberts is a leading cardiovascular pathologist. He is the current editor (at 2016) of the American Journal of Cardiology—a position he has held since 1982. He has published over 1,500 articles. Roberts served as the first head of the pathology service at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health from 1964 to 1993. He has been located at Baylor Heart and Vascular Institute and Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas since 1993.

  He is a genuine expert in heart disease.

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  14 April 2017

• What is the natural diet for humans?

  What is the natural diet for humans?  This is a common question but — we evolve based on behaviour and our behaviour may have a number of consequences, some beneficial and others not so much.

  Giraffes have long necks, not to enable them to reach leaves high in a tree, but because males fight using the necks.  Males with the longest, strongest neck wins. It does make life more awkward when eating grass or drinking from a water-hole in the evening.

  Evolution is based on changes that enable us to pass on genes for future generations.  If a genetic change affects cholesterol metabolism and causes an increase in heart disease this may not be relevant in evolutionary terms because heart disease usually affects people later in life.

  It still may have an impact on human society because of the important influence of grandparents involved in child-minding and their importance as a repository of knowledge.

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  16 November 2016