Group items tagged

"Measuring the number of small LDL particles is the best index of carbohydrate intake I know of, better than even blood sugar and triglycerides. In other words, increase carbohydrate intake and small LDL particles increase. Decrease carbohydrates and small LDL particles decrease. Why? Carbohydrates increase small LDL via a multistep process: First step: Increased fatty acid and apoprotein B production in the liver, which leads to increased VLDL production. (Apoprotein B is the principal protein of VLDL and LDL) Second step: Greater VLDL availability causes triglyceride-rich VLDL to interact with other particles, namely LDL and HDL, enriching them in triglycerides (via the action of cholesteryl-ester transfer protein, or CETP). Much VLDL is converted to LDL. Third step: Triglyceride-rich LDL is "remodeled" by enzymes like hepatic lipase, which create small LDL"

Fish consumption shifts lipoprotein subfractions to a less atherogenic pattern in humans. Li Z, Lamon-Fava S, Otvos J, Lichtenstein AH, Velez-Carrasco W, McNamara JR, Ordovas JM, Schaefer EJ. J Nutr. 2004 Jul;134(7):1724-8. PMID: 15226460 The effect of fish consumption on plasma lipoprotein subfraction concentrations was studied in 22 men and women (age > 40 y). Subjects were provided an average American diet (AAD, 35% of energy as fat, 14% as saturated fat, and 35 mg cholesterol/MJ) for 6 wk before being assigned to a National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) Step 2 high-fish diet (n = 11, 26% of energy as fat, 4.5% as saturated fat, and 15 mg cholesterol/MJ) or a NCEP Step 2 low-fish diet (n = 11, 26% of energy as fat, 4.0% as saturated fat, and 11 mg cholesterol/MJ) for 24 wk. All food and drink were provided to study participants. Consumption of the high-fish NCEP Step 2 diet was associated with a significant reduction in medium and small VLDL, compared with the AAD diet, whereas the low-fish diet did not affect VLDL subfractions. Both diets significantly reduced LDL cholesterol concentrations, without modifying LDL subfractions. Both diets also lowered HDL cholesterol concentrations. However, the high-fish diet significantly lowered only the HDL fraction containing both apolipoprotein (apo) AI and AII (LpAI:AII) and did not change HDL subfractions assessed by NMR, whereas the low-fish diet significantly lowered the HDL fraction containing only apo AI (LpAI) and the large NMR HDL fractions, resulting in a significant reduction in HDL particle size. Neither diet affected VLDL and LDL particle size. Our data indicate that within the context of a diet restricted in fat and cholesterol, a higher fish content favorably affects VLDL and HDL subspecies

Lipoic acid improves hypertriglyceridemia by stimulating triacylglycerol clearance and downregulating liver triacylglycerol secretion. Butler JA, Hagen TM, Moreau R. Arch Biochem Biophys. 2009 Feb 20. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 19232511 doi:10.1016/j.abb.2009.01.024

The serum LDL/HDL cholesterol ratio is influenced more favorably by exchanging saturated with unsaturated fat than by reducing saturated fat in the diet of women. Müller H, Lindman AS, Brantsaeter AL, Pedersen JI. J Nutr. 2003 Jan;133(1):78-83. PMID: 12514271 We conclude that, to influence the LDL/HDL cholesterol ratio, changing the proportions of dietary fatty acids may be more important than restricting the percentage of total or saturated fat energy, at least when derived mainly from lauric and myristic acids, both of which increase HDL cholesterol.

Intima-media thickness of the carotid artery and the distribution of lipoprotein subclasses in men aged 40 to 49 years between whites in the United States and the Japanese in Japan for the ERA JUMP study. Sekikawa A, Ueshima H, Sutton-Tyrrell K, Kadowaki T, El-Saed A, Okamura T, Takamiya T, Ueno Y, Evans RW, Nakamura Y, Edmundowicz D, Kashiwagi A, Maegawa H, Kuller LH. Metabolism. 2008 Feb;57(2):177-82. PMID: 18191046 doi: 10.1016/j.metabol.2007.08.022. In men in the post World War II birth cohort, i.e., men aged 40-49, whites in the United States (U.S.) had significantly higher levels of intima-media thickness of the carotid arteries (IMT) than the Japanese in Japan. The whites had significantly higher levels of large very-low-density-lipoprotein particles and significantly lower levels of large high-density-lipoprotein particles than the Japanese, whereas the two populations had similar levels of small low-density-lipoprotein particles. The two populations had similar associations of IMT with NMR lipoproteins. Adjusting for NMR lipoproteins did not attenuate the significant difference in IMT between the two populations (0.671 ± 0.006 for the whites and 0.618 ± 0.006 mm for the Japanese, P=0.01, mean (standard error)). Differences in the distributions of NMR lipoproteins between the two populations did not explain the higher IMT in the whites.