Good cholesterol cuts risk of heart disease

Washington: A new study has revealed that people with good cholesterol function stay at a bay from heart disease later in life as cholesterol helps in removing fat from the artery walls.

The research led by University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine explained that people whose blood has the highest measures of High-density lipoprotein (HDL), cholesterol, function had far fewer heart attacks and other heart disease events in the years to be followed, compared to those with the lowest HDL function.

Daniel J. Rader, MD, senior author of the study, said that this is a definitive finding that HDL function, even in people who are still relatively young and healthy, does predict later heart disease events, which implies that therapies that boost HDL function might reduce risk.

The researcher examined frozen blood samples from the heart disease and control groups to determine their HDL function, termed cholesterol and observed that people in the top third of efflux capacity scores, compared to those in the lowest third, had 36 percent fewer heart attacks and other indicators of coronary heart disease during the follow up period.

Rader mentioned that the size, lipid content, and protein cargo of HDL particles can vary from person to person, and there is also some evidence for functional impairment of HDLs in heart disease and diabetes.

The research is published in the Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology.