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Bigger
could be better: Study reveals ripe, old age linked to larger cholesterol
particles By
Lindsey Tanner, the Plain Dealer, Associated Press Chicago- One reason some people live into their 90s and
beyond may be a genetic variation that makes the cholesterol particles in
their blood really big. "Supersize it" is not usually associated with
good health, but evidence increasingly is showing that bigger is indeed
better when it comes to the lipoprotein particles that carry cholesterol
through the bloodstream. Smaller particles, it is believed, can more easily embed
themselves in the blood vessel walls, contributing to the fatty buildups
that lead to heart attacks and strokes. A study in last week's Journal of the American Medical
Association suggests that the tendency to have
large cholesterol particles can be inborn. The study, led by Dr. Nir Barzilai, director of the
Institute for Aging Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, found
that people in their late 90 s and beyond are more likely to have a gene
variation that causes large particles of both HDL cholesterol, the good
variety, and LDL cholesterol, the bad kind. "We basically think the size is necessary for
longevity," Barzilai said. The results are intriguing and support the notion that
"exceptional longevity may depend, at least in part, on inheriting
good genes," said Anna McCormick of the National Institute on Aging,
which helped fund the study. Nevertheless, while genes
probably determine particle size, recent research has suggested that
exercise can enlarge the particles. Doctors do not routinely test for HDL and LDL particle
size, but a few companies offer such tests commercially. If the findings
are confirmed, they could lead to wider testing. Moreover, research is
already under way on a cholesterol-lowering drug that also makes the
particles bigger. And Dr. Ronald M. Krauss, director of atherosclerosis
research at Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute, said the
findings suggest that large HDL and LDL particles may protect against all
sorts of life-shortening ailments, not just heart disease. The study involved 213 people of Ashkenazi, or Eastern
European, Jewish descent, ages 95 to 107, along with 216 of their
children. The researchers also used a comparison group made up of 258 of
the children's spouses and neighbors. The gene variation was found in nearly 25 percent of the
old people but in just 8.6 percent of the younger comparison group, a
threefold difference. The related children were twice as likely to have
the mutation as the comparison group. The Ashkenazi group and their children also had greater
levels of HDL cholesterol in their blood and substantially larger HDL and
LDL particles than the comparison subjects. Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging |
