Hello, I was watching abc nightly news tonight (Oct29) and there was a story about cholesterol. It said that there are large and small particles of cholesterol and researchers believe it is the small particles that act sluggishly and stick to the sides of walls and cause blockage. At the end of the story my children were screaming and I missed what they said and was wondering if anyone caught the story. In the end they showed a picture of a steak and it said "high protein diet" but what I sadly missed was if the high protein diet accounted for the good large size particles of cholesterol or the bad small sized particles. Did anyone catch this story. I even found the story on ABCs website but the actual link to the story (on their front page) didn't work. Just curious, Abby

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/...nzie031029.html

Here's a link to the article and the quote that you were looking for is:

Thanks Lisa...It was drivin' me nuts LOL

I went to the link you posted....and this is what they said:



Then at the end of the article:



(Italics are mine)

Does this make any sense????

If the big ones are better, why would they want to reduce their size????

Great article and link... thanks!

I have genetically high cholesteral which is uneffected significantly by dietary changes and/or exercise. Most of my family does too. NO ONE in my family has suffered a heart attack or has medical problems that are a direct result of too much cholesteral. I have been waiting for science to figure out that there is more to high and low cholesteral than meets the eye! Yaaaaa hoooooo.....

I have very high numbers....unfortunately, neither of my parents were ever tested. My dad had a stroke in his early 60's from extremely high BP....and my mom had a spasm of her coronary arteries. I know she was given a cardiac cath and a carotid ultrasound and they said her arteries were clear...but if they did ever test her cholesterol, etc she was never told.

Both my parents died of cancer....dad was 69, mom was 76. As far as we can tell, on both sides of the family, there is NO cardiac disease. None of my father's sibling died of anything related to cardiac disease....even 2 brothers and a sister that were alcoholics. On my mom's side, one sister died of cardiomyopathy, not sure of the cause....but no one else going back 3 generations!

My cholesterol jumped dramatically in 1 year...went up 100 points!!! The doc ignored the earlier numbers because they were dont in another state. I stayed right around the same, around 230, for a few years, then last year I went on a strict low-fat/high carb/high protein diet. It was very low fat....pretty much none....and I followed it strictly....I was also exerciing: cardio 3-4X/week and weights 6X/week.

After 3 months of this, my cholesterol went up....to almost 300. I then went on Atkins. Again, after 3 months, my cholesterol went up again! The good goes down, the bad goes up....and the total goes up! Triglycerides were MUCH better, but everything else was up, up, up!!!!!

I was put on a statin, and I took it for 6 weeks, then found out that my cholesterol dropped to 150!!!! I got depressed, my stomach was upset, and I felt like garbage! Discouraged about my numbers, along with a lot of personal stuff and I fell completely off the wagon and went back to my old ways. I still kept up the meds....until about 4 weeks ago.

I have stomach "issues"....GERD, HH, esophagela motility trouble problems....and I'm very sensitive to meds and certain foods. A few weeks ago my stomach started acting up big time and my specialist took me off all meds...including the statin.

I go to the doc next week, so I'll see what she has to say....but I've read up on cholesterol and I don't think I'll go back on the statins.....I think I'll just stick with LC and let nature take it's course! Hey! my doc's at Duke....maybe I can get tested to see if I have big or little particles!!!! LOL

This business about particle size has been known for some time. In general, they are referring to LDL. Pattern A LDL particles are large, fluffy, and good for your cardiac health. Pattern B LDL consists of small particles that tend to cling to the sides of arteries and make mischief.

For anyone whose doctor is using a high LDL count as an excuse to put you on some drug treatment... Insist that he first have your LDL particle size tested. It could be that you tend to have the large type and are unlikely to suffer a heart attack. The drug he wants to put you on is not only dangerous but totally unnecessary.

If you want another take on cholesterol and it's connection to heart disease (probably very little) take a look at a book called "The Cholesterol Myths". Matter of fact, just go to Amazon.com, search for the book, and read the reviews. Several of the reviews give a good summary of the author's findings. The author, U. Ravnskov, is not alone in his opinions. There are many scientists who agree with him.

...and his website, THINCS, is here. There are several interesting articles there.