Why HDL Cholesterol is “Good”
For many years HDL cholesterol has been called “good” because it carries plaque-forming particles from your arteries and bloodstream back to your liver where they can be removed from your body. An exciting new study shows that regular HDL cholesterol may not be very effective in doing this, but another form called Nascent HDL carries these protein-fats much more quickly to your liver to be removed from your circulation.
Sugared Drinks and Diabetes
This year there is virtually complete agreement among doctors that sugared drinks cause the highest rises in blood sugar that cause a fatty liver that leads to diabetes.
Questions About Stents
A recent study suggests that stents placed in arteries leading to the heart have not been shown to cure chest pain (Lancet, Nov 2, 2017). Placing stents in people who have heart pain from narrowed arteries and giving them medication is not more effective in relieving pain than just giving them medication and no stents. Stents do help to prevent the heart muscle from dying when put in place within the first few hours after the start of a heart attack.
Exercise Helps People with Heart Disease
A recent study shows that stable angina patients who exercise are less likely to die from heart attacks. Stable angina means that you may or may not have chest discomfort or pain at rest, but pain occurs or worsens when you exert yourself.
Cancer Cells and Sugar
An exciting new study in yeast contributes to our understanding of the link between cancer cells and sugar. Yeast cells, like cancer cells, get most of their energy from fermentation of sugar without needing oxygen.
Isabella Karle’s Nobel Prize Went to Her Husband
On October 3, 2017, Isabella Karle died of a brain tumor at age 95, four years after her husband, Nobel Prize winner Jerome Karle, died at age 94 of liver cancer. More than 70 years before their deaths, both were exposed to radiation when they worked in the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb during World War II.
Deceptive Headlines about Exercise and Heart Attacks
“You Can Exercise Yourself to Death, Says New Study” was the headline in The New York Post on October 17, 2017. Headlines like that are likely to discourage people from exercising and thus to shorten their lives.
Desire for Junk Food is in Your Genes
Our hunter-gatherer ancestors spent all their waking hours scrounging for food and trying to keep from starving to death. They developed a taste for the most calorie-dense foods that satisfied best, such as honey, meats and starchy roots.
Vera Caslavska, the Most Courageous Olympian
Vera Caslavska was the heroine of the 1968 Olympics, not because she was the dominant athlete at these games in which she won four gold and two silver medals in gymnastics, and not because she had won 35 Olympic medals as well as the World and European championships.
Exercise May Help to Prevent Dementia
More than 80 percent of North Americans over the age of 85 suffer from some form of dementia. A new study in rats helps to explain why exercise could help to prevent or delay this dreaded condition (Sci Rep, 2017 Sep 7;7(1):10903). A group of rats were kept in cages...