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What causes coronary heart disease or coronary atherosclerotic plaque, this thing that we track with heart scans? Well, here are a few little-publicized facts about heart disease that you are unlikely to hear from your When's-the-next-stent? cardiologist or the What is there besides statins? primary care doctor. (Since everybody knows that smoking is a modifiable risk for heart disease that can be readily identified, let's focus on the blood tests that reveal heart disease causes.)

Modification of lipoproteins by very low-carbohydrate diets. Volek JS, Sharman MJ, Forsythe CE. J Nutr. 2005 Jun;135(6):1339-42. Review. PMID: 15930434

The results suggest that a short-term ketogenic diet does not have a deleterious effect on CVD risk profile and may improve the lipid disorders characteristic of atherogenic dyslipidemia. A ketogenic diet favorably affects serum biomarkers for cardiovascular disease in normal-weight men. Sharman MJ, Kraemer WJ, Love DM, Avery NG, Gómez AL, Scheett TP, Volek JS. J Nutr. 2002 Jul;132(7):1879-85. PMID: 12097663

Dietary mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids similarly affect LDL size in healthy men and women. Kratz M, Gülbahçe E, von Eckardstein A, Cullen P, Cignarella A, Assmann G, Wahrburg U. J Nutr. 2002 Apr;132(4):715-8. PMID: 11925466 In conclusion, our data indicate that dietary unsaturated fat similarly reduces LDL size relative to saturated fat. However, the small magnitude of this reduction also suggests that the composition of dietary fat is not a major factor affecting LDL size.

Separate effects of reduced carbohydrate intake and weight loss on atherogenic dyslipidemia -- Krauss et al. 83 (5): 1025 -- American Journal of Clinical Nutrition Changes in peak LDL diameter (Table 2) and mass concentrations of LDL subfractions (Table 3) induced by each of the diets were reflected by changes in the proportions of subjects exhibiting LDL subclass pattern B (Figure 2). There were linear reductions in the prevalence of pattern B as a function of reduced carbohydrate intake after both the stable-weight and weight-loss periods. However, the slopes of these relations differed (P = 0.04) such that the magnitude of the reduction in expression of pattern B induced by weight loss increased in association with the percentage of carbohydrate intake. Conclusions: Moderate carbohydrate restriction and weight loss provide equivalent but nonadditive approaches to improving atherogenic dyslipidemia. Moreover, beneficial lipid changes resulting from a reduced carbohydrate intake were not significant after weight loss. Separate effects of reduced carbohydrate intake and weight loss on atherogenic dyslipidemia. Krauss RM, Blanche PJ, Rawlings RS, Fernstrom HS, Williams PT. Am J Clin Nutr. 2006 May;83(5):1025-31; quiz 1205. Erratum in: Am J Clin Nutr. 2006 Sep;84(3):668. PMID: 16685042