High Levels Of Blood HDL Cholesterol Protects Against Heart Disease And Reduces The Risk Of Cancer

High Levels Of Blood HDL Cholesterol Protects Against Heart Disease And Reduces The Risk Of Cancer.
Higher blood levels of HDL cholesterol, the "good" gracious that protects against mettle disease, are also strongly associated with a tone down hazard of cancer, a new review of studies suggests. "For about a 10-point increase of HDL, there is a reduced danger of cancer by about one third over an average follow-up of 4,5 years," said Dr Richard Karas, supervisor director of the Tufts Medical Center Molecular Cardiology Research Institute and move author of a report in the June 22 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Those numbers come from an opinion of 24 randomized controlled trials, aimed at determining the signification on heart disease of lowering levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol, through the use of statin drugs.

The reviewing singled out trials that also recorded the incidence of cancer among the participants. The researchers statement a 36 percent lower cancer rate for every 10 milligrams per liter (mg/dl) higher aim of HDL. But while the relationship between higher HDL and lower cancer imperil was independent of other cancer risk factors, such as smoking, obesity and age, Karas was thorough to say the study does not prove cause and effect.

So "We can say that higher levels of HDL are associated with a bring risk of cancer, but we can't say that one causes the other". Exactly so, said Dr Jennifer Robinson, professor of epidemiology and panacea at the University of Iowa College of Public Health, who wrote an accompanying editorial. High HDL levels may completely be a marker of the feather of good traits that reduce both cardiovascular and cancer risk.

And "People have a lot of characteristics that are all kind of interrelated. They may not exercise, be paunchy and so on, and so have lower HDL than normal. The higher gamble of cancer may have nothing to do with what HDL does".

That's a real possibility but he also mentioned some possible physical mechanisms that might give HDL cholesterol anti-cancer activity. "HDL alters the behave of the immune system, which looks for peculiar cells that may be cancerous or precancerous and attacks them. It also has antioxidant properties, and there is a lot of interest in the function of antioxidants in reducing cancer risk".

HDL cholesterol also has anti-inflammatory activity, which might act against cancer. His laboratory is "starting to think" about experiments to study these various theories. The only convincing proof would be a controlled trying out testing whether medication that raises HDL levels reduces cancer incidence. No such medication is now on the retail (other than niacin, which has a minor effect in raising HDL levels), although several are being tested for their effectiveness on heart disease, stroke and other cardiovascular problems. "We actually don't distinguish that something is causing the disease unless we do controlled trials".

The researchers who conduct those studies should keep track of cancer incidence as well as cardiovascular disease among the participants. The new study's pronouncement that an appreciable effect on cancer was evident in just a few years "shows the importance in current studies to footpath cancer online. many don't". Until the anti-cancer hypothesis is proved or disproved, Karas and Robinson said, the best matter to do is adopt the healthy lifestyle that can keep HDL cholesterol levels high-priced - exercising regularly, eating a healthy diet, not smoking and consuming alcohol in moderation.