Worse Cholesterol Than LDL

David Mendosa Living With It Medical Journalist Living with Diabetes and Author of Fitness and Photography for Fun, www.mendosa.com/fitnessblog After earning a B.A. with honors from the University of California,... Send Message Subscribe: David Mendosa

Monday, September 07, 2009
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Preliminary research seems to show that a little known type of cholesterol might be the biggest threat to our heart health, the most severe complication of diabetes. Even worse than LDL cholesterol is something called oxycholesterol. The 238th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society heard...

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Untitled Comment
Gretchen Becker
Monday, September 07, 2009 at 09:57 AM

Richard K. Bernstein has been saying since at least 1997 that it's not LDL per se but small, dense LDL and oxidized and glycated LDL that is the problem.

Now someone calls oxidized cholesterol "oxycholesterol" and trumpets this as a new discovery?

re: Untitled Comment
reconcilr
Monday, September 07, 2009 at 12:31 PM

It must mean that you have to come up with a name for the discovery before you can get credit for it. That makes me wonder how many more people knew about oxidized cholesterol, but did not give it a name. Does the name make it a more valuable (or valid) discovery?

re: re: Untitled Comment
Gretchen Becker
Monday, September 07, 2009 at 05:08 PM

Not in my book. But it does make it easier to remember. I remember chemicals with names like obestatin, or leptin more easily than chemicals with names like PRK125-6.

Just as I can remember the Jupiter symphony or the Eroica symphony more easily that "Symphony No 14 in C Minor."

love is like oxygen
frankenduf
Tuesday, September 08, 2009 at 03:54 PM
i don't buy the emphasis on oxidized cholesterol as the etiologic essence of atherosclerosis- the problem is that there have been 3 large, randomized studies which show no benefit (and even harm!?) to antioxidant therapy- the real cutting edge with AS and DM is lipoprotein remnants- it turns out that DM has high levels (low clearance) of the remnants which increases the uptake of LDL into the artery- the reason is insulin resistance- insulin normally helps the liver clear the remnants- my prediction is that the next novel treatment for DM/AS will be an enzyme inhibitor which increases remnant clearance- you heard it here first! ps- the 'bad' enzyme is SULF2- easy to remember, but still obscure enough to not raise any interest