At 6:13 -0500 28/11/02, Amadeus Schmidt wrote:

>But a high blood cholesterol *is* a *strong marker* for heart and artery
>diseases.

OK. Let's assume then that this is true, and move on to the rest of
this rather intriguing post :)


>So, if it's not the dietary intake of cholesterol, then there must be
>annother culprit which elevates cholesterol to a dangerous level.
>Or a culprit which elevates cholesterol and at the same time causes heart
>disease by annother reason.

Or another option. A process which is generally harmless but when
cholesterol levels are elevated becomes your CHD culprit.

Have a read of this article. It is one of a series (number 5 of 6)
so the first few paragraphs are meaningless when taken out of
context. I suggest you start reading at the paragraph which begins
"What is heart disease?".

http://www.redflagsweekly.com/features/2002_oct31.html


This discusses in simple terms the process of repairing artery damage.
This process would normally be relatively benign, but in the presence
of elevated LDL results in atherosclerosis.

So, the risk of CHD can be reduced by either eliminating the cause of
the initial artery damage which is occurring or by reducing LDL.
Obviously the first option is "best" as if there is no artery damage
the plaque can't be formed :)


The rest of this series of articles talks about raised cortisol levels
as a risk factor for CHD: http://www.redflagsweekly.com/kendrick.html

 ...R.