A fresh look at heart disease, cholesterol

For more than five decades, Americans have been told that cholesterol causes heart disease. That’s why nutrition experts, cardiologists and family-practice physicians advised their patients to limit egg consumption and avoid butter.

To this day, many people think of eggs as a sinful indulgence. The dairy counter is filled with low-fat or no-fat yogurt, milk and cheese substitutes. And a lot of health professionals still tell people to ration foods containing cholesterol. After all, beliefs die hard.

A new study from Finland, however, may be the final nail in the cholesterol coffin (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition online, Feb. 10, 2016).

The researchers in Kuopio have followed more than 1,000 healthy middle-aged men for over 20 years. At the beginning of the study in the 1980s, the men filled out detailed records of their eating habits.

Now the results are in, and both eggs and cholesterol have been exonerated. After analyzing the decades-long data, the investigators found no connection between egg consumption and heart disease. There also was no link between cholesterol in the diet and atherosclerosis in the carotid arteries.

The study included a group of high-risk patients. Approximately one-third of these men carry a gene called ApoE4 that predisposes them to both heart disease and Alzheimer’s. In other words, these highly susceptible individuals were a little like canaries in the coal mine. As much as an egg a day or moderate-to-high cholesterol consumption did not appear to increase the likelihood of a heart attack or stroke among these men.

Even more surprising, there are studies suggesting that people who eat more eggs have larger, less dense artery-clogging LDL cholesterol particles (Metabolism, March 2013). Such “fluffy” particles are less likely to contribute to arterial plaque. Other research demonstrates that egg consumption raises good HDL cholesterol, lowers inflammation and improves blood-sugar control (Lipids, June 2013).

http://www.abqjournal.com/736334/health/a-fresh-look-at-heart-disease-cholesterol.html