Blame Your Family - Not Your Diet of High Cholesterol Food
by Martin A. Davidmartin.david@medicalhealthcarecareerschools.com
Health Columnist
Have you ever know someone who could eat double cheeseburgers and still have a normal cholesterol level? You may be "enjoying" your low cholesterol diet while they finish off a second helping of ice cream. You've probably wondered how these folks manage to eat high cholesterol food and still manage to have lower cholesterol than you. They do it naturally and without cholesterol lowering drugs. Modern medical science may have found the answer: some people are genetically predisposed to have low or normal cholesterol levels.
It's in Your Genes
Scientists at a university in England have discovered that thousands of people have rare genetic mutations - unexplained changes in the structures of their genes - that lead to abnormally low or abnormally high cholesterol levels. The new study, using a unique method of gene scanning, found that a person's genes can determine how their body responds to cholesterol. The researchers say this explains why some people can eat any foods they wish without raising normal cholesterol levels, while others are restricted to low cholesterol diets.
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Cholesterol Studies
The study followed more than two dozen sets of identical twins - all males in a selected age range. In each pair, one was sedentary and the other exercised on a regular basis. In each pair, both men reacted similarly to high cholesterol food. If one brother experienced a higher than normal cholesterol level from the food, so did the other. If one had no change from his normal cholesterol level, neither did the other. The results led the researchers to look for genetic clues. What they found was a gene that controlled the body's release of cholesterol into the bloodstream.
The full impact and implications of the study have not yet been discovered, and the researchers emphasized that, regardless of genetic makeup, a low cholesterol diet is still the best path to a healthy heart.
About the Author
Martin A. David consults as a Senior Technical Writer for a number of Silicon Valley firms. He is also a translator, specializing in Danish, French and Spanish literary works. He has written numerous feature articles for publications including the Los Angeles Times. He has also published a novel, and a non-fiction book in the area of dance. Martin earned his B.A. in Liberal Arts from Brooklyn College in his native New York. He currently chairs the Santa Clara Cultural Advisory Commission in Santa Clara, California.
