Using data from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, the team followed 13,549 middle aged (45-65 years) Americans for nearly 20 years, looking to see if ischemic stroke risk was associated with several measures of obesity; body mass index (BMI), waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio.

The intriguing report has just been published online in the journal Stroke.

Medicine defines a stroke as an interruption of the blood supply to a part of the brain. A stroke happens when blood flow to a part of the brain is interrupted because a blood vessel is blocked or bursts open.

If the flow stops for even a few seconds, the brain can’t get the oxygen it needs and the cells start to die. This death can result permanent damage.

“We found that the risk of stroke was increased with each measure of obesity,” explains study lead author Dr. Hiroshi Yatsuya, a visiting associate professor of public health at the University of Minnesota. The degree of risk varied by ethnicity, as well as for men and women, with risks especially high for blacks.

This increased risk has been confirmed by many earlier studies, and has also been seen in Asians, though no one knows precisely why.

In this research, the increased stroke risk that came with added weight was seen in every ethnic group – men and women in the highest obesity categories had almost double the risk for stroke as did those in the lowest category.

For instance, those in the highest BMI category had a 1.43 to 2.12 times’ higher risk of stroke, with variations by race and sex.

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Stroke Risk Increases As Weight Goes Up Continued…

Measure obesity by waist circumference and the stroke risk ratios ranged from 1.65 to 3.19, from 1.69 to 2.55 when the waist to hip ratio was used.

“Degree of obesity, defined by body mass index, waist circumference, or waist-to-hip ratio, was a significant risk factor for ischemic stroke regardless of sex or race,” the study authors point out.

Experts think that obesity increases the incidence of high blood pressure and diabetes, both major risk factors for stroke and other diseases of the cardiovascular system.

When the researchers factored in blood pressure and diabetes the association between obesity and stroke risk was weaker, but sill there.

“Obesity contributes to both diabetes and hypertension [high blood pressure], which are associated with stroke and at an earlier age,” points out Daniel Lackland, a professor of epidemiology at the Medical University of South Carolina and spokesman for the American Heart Association.

When it comes to stroke prevention, the organization stresses the need for controlling your weight by following a healthy diet as well as getting regular physical activity.

Controlled trials would need to be conducted to provide clear evidence that obesity also brings down stroke risk, but until they are, if you’re concerned take steps to reduce your weight, and you’ll very likely reduce your stroke risk too.

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In the study, overweight or obese subjects who followed a low-carb diet lost about the same amount of weight as those who cut down on their fat intake while also taking weight loss drug Xenical or Alli.

The surprise was that the low-carb diet brought more beneficial effects to blood pressure numbers.

What makes this study different, according to William S. Yancy Jr. of the VA Medical Center in North Carolina, is that this work enrolled real people who had common health problems like heart disease or diabetes – these conditions are usually not part of most studies of weight loss.

He and his team assigned 146 subjects to either a low-carbohydrate diet, eating less than 20 grams of carbs a day, or to take 120 mg of orlistat three times a day and followed a low calorie, low fat diet. The instructions the subjects were given came at group meetings held every two weeks for the first six months of the study, monthly thereafter.

The meetings for diet advice were a big part of the success – subjects who came to 80% (or more) of the meetings lost an average of 14-15% of their body weight.

Low-carb diets, as the name implies, limit carbohydrates – breads, grains, rice, starchy veggies and fruit – and focus on sources of protein and fat.

The Atkins diet, the Zone diet and Protein Power are a few of the more popular low-carb plans. Low fat plans rely on limiting the number of calories; even the ones in fat-free, trans fat-free and low-fat foods and burning more than you take in. So, exercise is part of the weight loss equation here.

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Low Carb Diet Lowers Blood Pressure Continued…

The drug in the study, orlistat, works by blocking the absorption of fat from food. If you take it, you must cut down on your fat intake or put yourself at risk for some nasty side effects, like gas and incontinence. In the current study, those who took the drug were more likely to report gas, bowel incontinence and diarrhea than those on the low-carb eating plan. Only one subject stopped using the drug because of the side effects.

“Orlistat can work quite well if it’s used correctly,” Yancy points out.

At the end of 48 the weeks, the low-carb subjects lost almost 9.5% of their body weight, compared to 8.5% for the orlistat group – not a big difference. Cholesterol levels between the two groups had similar improvements. The difference came in blood pressure numbers. The low-carb group had a 6% drop in their systolic (top) blood pressure and a 4.5% drop in diastolic (bottom) blood pressure. In the orlistat group the differences were much smaller – 1.5% in their systolic number, 0.4% in the diastolic number.

When it comes to weight loss, the best bet is to choose the plan (low-carb or low fat) that’s best for you, taking into account the types of foods you like.

Look for a way of eating that you can live with long term, not just for a few weeks or months. The research also points out the value of regular support for your efforts, so be sure you find a reliable source or “buddy” to cheer you on during your efforts.

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It seems that most of us don’t tie risks factors like an unhealthy diet and being inactive to having heart disease – And we should.

People need to be educated and become aware of the risks so that they can identify and adopt healthier lifestyles. That’s what the AHA’s online My Life Check is all about.

By developing seven simple, natural steps any of us can take to get a healthy heart, the AHA is hoping to encourage changes that support heart health. Published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, ideal cardiovascular health for adults is defined by these specific health measures.

1. Never smoking, or quitting more than a year ago.

2. A healthy body mass index (BMI).

3. Being physically active, the more, the better – at least 150 minutes per week of moderate intensity workouts (75 minutes of vigorous physical activity).

4. Blood pressure reading below 120/80.

5. Fasting blood glucose less than 100 milligrams/deciliter.

6. Total cholesterol of less than 200 milligrams/deciliter.

7. Eating a healthy diet that includes fruits and veggies each day, two servings of fish per week, fiber rich whole grains, limiting sodium and the number of sugar sweetened beverages you drink per week.

Experts at the American Heart Association are convinced that by following these seven health factors and lifestyle behaviors we could improve the cardiovascular health of Americans by 20% by the year 2020. An aggressive goal to be sure.

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7 Steps To A Healthy Heart Continued…

This would also bring reduced deaths from heart-related diseases and strokes by 20%. The new online resource, My Life Check, is an assessment that you can complete to help figure out what you need to do to achieve better cardiovascular health.

“To date, there has been great success in reducing disability and death from heart disease and stroke, in part through aggressive improvements in the diagnosis and treatment of these diseases and in limited uptake of measures to prevent heart disease and stroke,” says Clyde W. Yancy, MD, president of the American Heart Association, in a news release. “We achieved our 2010 goal of reducing death by heart disease and stroke by 25%, earlier and by a wider margin than we had targeted.”

Good news to be sure. Still there are many people who are exposed to risk factors for heart disease, and experts expect to see more of these diseases, and at earlier ages than before.

This is why medical people are so worried about the popularity of some very unhealthy habits.

The AHA is hoping the message gets heard and adopted by those at midlife and younger. “Essentially, everyone is a candidate to take at least one step forward in these metrics, from poor to intermediate or intermediate to ideal, to move a substantial portion of the population and have a real impact on cardiovascular health,” says David M. Lloyd-Jones, MD, ScM, lead author of the special report.

The AHA experts point out that of all the treatments out there to help with heart disease, the best one is preventing the disease in the first place.

So, are there any of the steps above you can take?

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While there has been work in the past to look at the link between erectile dysfunction (ED) and heart disease, this most recent study is the first to investigate the frequency of sex as it might relate to heart health.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States.

For this latest work, researcher Susan A. Hall, Ph.D. of the New England Research Institutes and her colleagues analyzed men who took part in the population based Massachusetts Male Aging Study.

This study looked at erectile dysfunction plus other sexual function variables – Things like libido, for example. The work included 1,165 men (in their 50’s on average) who had no history of heart disease at the beginning of the study, though 213 did have ED at the start of the research.

The participants were followed, on average, for 16 years.

The team found that there was a higher risk of cardiovascular disease as the frequency of sexual activity decreased. When compared to subjects who had sex at least 2 to 3 times a week, men with sexual activity of once a month (or less) had a 45% higher risk of heart disease during the study.

These findings do account for things like age and ED status.

“Our results suggest that a low frequency of sexual activity predicts [cardiovascular disease] independently of [erectile dysfunction] and that screening for sexual activity might be clinically useful,” the researchers write.

As part of the study, the team also investigated the role of sexual desire and the subjects’ capacity for sex as other possible factors in heart disease risk. Hall explains to online medical resource WebMD, “Men who are sexually active likely have libido and the capacity for physical activity. So the ability to have sex might be a marker for overall health.”

Of course a man who’s having regular sex is more likely to be in a supportive, intimate relationship with a regular partner, and experts do agree that this could also be responsible for an improvement in health.

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Sex Means Less Risk Of Heart Disease Continued…

The idea behind the study is that your doctor could get information about your cardiovascular condition, and risk for disease, just by asking some personal questions about your sex life, interest in sex and how active you are on a regular basis.

Of course talking about sex with a doctor or healthcare professional who seems rushed and preoccupied might not be the easiest thing you’ve ever done, but you can’t let this stop you.

Instead, plan what you’ll say…if you have a question, try to keep it to one or two sentences. You might also do some research online (using reputable sites as sources, of course) on your own to get you familiar with the basics.

Most important of all, remember that a doctor is a person, and while he (or she) might be uncomfortable with the topic, this does NOT mean you can’t raise it and get help with your problems.

In fact, expect a bit of awkwardness, feeling embarrassed when you start out, and you’ll be better prepared to face it in the moment, rather than back down and not get the answer you need.

The thing for men, and the women who love them, to take away from this research is that sexual health may have a lot more to do with heart health than medical science has realized.

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It seems that fat that settles around your thighs and buttocks may be better for you than a spare tire around the middle according to experts from Oxford University. A new review of the data on body fat distribution actually suggests that fat in and around the backside might even offer some health benefit.

“It is the protective role of lower body, that is, gluteofemoral fat that is striking,” explains the team of British researchers in the January 12, 2009 online edition of the International Journal of Obesity. “The protective properties of the lower-body fat depot have been confirmed in many studies conducted in subjects with a wide range of age, BMI and co-morbidities.”

Of course the reason we have fat at all is so the body can store energy for use later on. Naturally this was more important when there wasn’t a fast food place or smoothie shop on every corner, when we weren’t sitting behind a desk, or on a couch most of the time, and when crops failed and food could be scarce.

The CDC uses the term obesogenic to describe an environment where increased food intake is promoted (notice U.S. portion sizes), unhealthy foods are everywhere and we are not physically active on a regular basis.

Healthy people who are carrying a little extra around the backside (usually women) also seem to have lower cholesterol, lower blood glucose levels and higher leptin (a hormone that regulates energy intake and expenditure) levels than those who put on the pounds around the middle.

Think of fat in the butt, hips and thighs as long-term energy storage for the body, which makes it a lot more sluggish in terms of metabolism than the fat around the tummy.

And while fat in the lower body (gluteofemoral is the medical term) isn’t as easy to put on as fat at the middle, it also doesn’t come off so easily either. The interesting tidbit for women is that fat in the buttocks does come off more readily when the demand for energy is really high, as it is when you breastfeed.

Fat in the caboose also seems to do some good for the body because it helps lower levels of immune system cells known as cytokines that promote inflammation – a key factor that’s been implicated in many health problems, heart disease in particular.

If you do have more of your fat at the middle as compared to fat in the lower body, it’s important for you to understand that you’re at a higher risk of heart disease, diabetes and other problems that come with obesity.

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Big Bottoms – Not So Bad After All Continued…

Experts are now finding that the waist-to-hip ratio is even more predictive of heart disease than the BMI (body mass index) by itself.

To get an idea of your own waist-to-hip number, you can use a measuring tape to measure around your hips at the widest part of your butt, and then measure your waist at the narrowest part, usually just above your belly button. Divide your waist measurement by your hip measurement and you have the waist-to-hip ratio.

Generally a waist-to-hip ratio over 0.85 for women, or 1.0 for men will be considered risky. If this is you, talk to your doctor and take steps now to make things better.

And while the results of this review might have you feeling a bit better about a bigger backside, don’t expect any medical person to tell you that fat in and around the butt, hips and thighs is safe, though it does appear to be less harmful than fat at the waistline.

For now, your best bet, especially if you’re worried about your risk of heart disease, is to take steps to control your weight and lose any excess fat carried in any part of your body.

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Until this work, there hadn’t been a systematic review of just how strong the evidence of dietary factors in heart disease might be.

Heart disease, as the leading cause of death for both men and women in the U.S. (and around the world), gets lots of attention.

This disease kills more people than all forms of cancer combined. As dire as this sounds, there are many forms of heart disease that can be treated (even prevented) by making healthy lifestyle choices that include a “heart healthy” diet and exercise. There are things you can do now, today, to help yourself.

Stop smoking, lower your cholesterol and keep high blood pressure under control.

To conduct their review on diet and heart disease, the team performed a systematic search for prospective studies conducted between 1950 and June 2007. The search included nearly 200 different studies (146 prospective cohort studies, 43 randomized controlled trials).

Cohort studies look back at the habits of a particular group of people, while randomized controlled trials assign participants randomly to a dietary intervention or a control group. The results of all these studies were then pooled and a predefined algorithm was used to rate the evidence behind a heart healthy claim.

The end result? Only three specific dietary factors had strong evidence of being heart disease fighters. Diets rich in veggies, nuts (loaded with monounsaturated fatty acids) and those that were closest to following a Mediterranean-style diet with lots of fruits, veggies, legumes, nuts, whole grains, cheese or yogurt and fish have the strongest evidence of lowering your risk of heart disease.

Only a Mediterranean-style diet has been found, in randomized, controlled trials, to cut the risk of heart disease. So if you’re considering making a change in what you eat to reduce your heart disease risk, this is the plan backed by the most hard evidence as having some benefit.

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Not All Diets Are Good For The Heart Continued…

Of course the typical Western style diet comes with foods high in trans fatty acids as well as processed meats, red meat, butter, refined grains and high fat dairy products that are known to have a negative impact on heart disease risk.

Those foods with a high glycemic index such as simple or refined carbs (white bread, pasta and rice) are also trouble as they cause blood sugar levels to spike and have been found to raise the risk of heart disease.

Other dietary factors such as omega-3 fatty acids in fish, as well as whole grains, alcohol, vitamins E and C, beta-carotene, folate, fruit and fiber were found to have moderate evidence in support of their heart healthy claims. More research in this area is needed.

“Although investigations of dietary components may help to shed light on mechanisms behind the benefits of dietary patterns, it is unlikely that modifying the intake of a few nutrients or foods would substantially influence coronary outcomes,” the researchers conclude. “Our findings support the strategy of investigating dietary patterns in cohort studies and randomized controlled trials for common and complex chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease.”

In other words, you’ll need to make whole scale changes in what you eat if you’re concerned about heart disease risk, and be sure to watch for further research.

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This current work found vitamin D deficiency before 45 was linked with a threefold-increased risk of hypertension at midlife.

Vitamin D is the fat soluble nutrient found in oily fish, eggs and vitamin fortified foods like milk, cereals and drinks that we need for strong bones as it helps the body use the calcium in foods.

Once deficiencies in this vitamin were associated with the bone disease rickets, today’s research is showing that having enough of this nutrient is important in protecting you against a variety of health problems.

Not getting enough vitamin D leaves you with lower bone mineral density, as well as upping your risk for certain cancers (colon, breast ovarian), arthritis, diabetes, dementia, infections, multiple sclerosis, possibly even tuberculosis.

Estimates by a University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine team suggest that 3 out of every 4 Americans has vitamin D levels below what is believed necessary for optimal health. A lack of exposure to natural sunlight, as well as poor eating habits are likely to blame for the numbers.

In this latest work, researchers looked at data from the Michigan Bone Health and Metabolism Study that followed 559 Caucasian women in their late 20s, 30s and early 40s for a total of 15 years, beginning back in 1992.

The subject’s vitamin D levels were measured in 1993 soon after the women entered the study, and their blood pressure readings were taken each year. At the end of the trial, when the average age of the participants was 53, about 1 in 4 had been diagnosed with high blood pressure.

“This is preliminary data so we can’t say with certainty that low vitamin D levels are directly linked to high blood pressure,” points out Fiojaune C. Griffin, MPH who is a doctoral candidate in epidemiology at the University of Michigan. “But this may be another example of how what you do early in life impacts your health years later.”

You can get vitamin D naturally by being out in the sun as well as trying to eat more vitamin D rich foods. Still getting enough of this vitamin from foods isn’t easy, and is the reason supplements have become so popular.

Most multivitamins you’ll find contain 400 international units (IU) of the vitamin, but current thinking suggests that the real dosage should be far higher, maybe as much as ten times higher. The upper limit for vitamin D intake according to the Institute of Medicine’s current standards is 2,000 IUs a day.

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Vitamin D Protects Against High Blood Pressure Continued…

Study co-author and University of Michigan professor of epidemiology Mary Fran Sowers, Ph.D. is suggesting that perhaps the public health message about protection from the sun might need to be modified. Sunscreens of SPF 15 block virtually all vitamin D synthesis by the skin. If you’re older, or a bit overweight or obese, your body is also naturally less efficient at making vitamin D from sunlight.

Exposure during off peak hours, for just ten minutes, is an easy, totally natural way to get the vitamin D your body needs. “We have recognized for a long time that it takes very limited sun exposure to get adequate vitamin D,” Sowers explains.

While there’s no general agreement about the right amounts of vitamin D, the current Institute of Medicine recommended intake are currently (and rightfully according to many experts) under review. New recommendations are due by May 2010.

If you’re a younger woman who wants to protect against high blood pressure, as well as many other health problems, your best bet is to do what you can to keep your vitamin D levels up and keep your eye out for ongoing research.

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1. Sky high cholesterol may be partly due to genetics – for some families it’s inevitable that LDL (bad) cholesterol will be in the unhealthy zone. Known technically as familial hypercholesterolemia, it’s an issue for 1 in 500 of us and increase the risk for early heart attack. Some who inherit defective genes from each parent (much rarer, affecting 1 in 1,000,000) can have total cholesterol numbers over 1000 mg/dL. Numbers this high can signal early death, often before 20 years old.

2. Clogged arteries look like butter – LDL (bad) cholesterol slowly builds up on artery walls, leaving a thick plaque that narrows arteries, restricts blood flow and can lead to blood clots. Once arteries start to thicken and become rigid, they take on the yellow color of cholesterol, leaving them looking as though they are lined with a layer of frozen butter.

3. You can see high cholesterol on your skin – look for reddish-yellowish bumps on your skin surface, known to medicine as xanthomas, that vary in size and can show up all over the body including your eyelids, joints and hands. Often they appear in older folks or those with diabetes or other health issues.

4. Your total cholesterol number can be too low – and at these levels, just as unhealthy as high cholesterol. While your total cholesterol number should be under 200 mg/dL; numbers below 160 mg/dL are associated with health risks like cancer. Experts still cannot say if the health problems cause the low cholesterol or vice versa. Some work has also found that pregnant women with low total cholesterol are more apt to give birth prematurely. Low total cholesterol, as well as LDL levels have each been linked to anxiety and depression.

5. Our total cholesterol numbers are dropping – unlike the obesity epidemic, total cholesterol numbers have gone down over the last few years. And while elevated cholesterol wasn’t recognized as a serious health problem 50 years ago, the numbers are dropping now mostly because more of us are aware of the dangers – we’re screened more, there are healthier dietary options available and the widespread use of statin drugs all combine to keep those numbers in check.

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8 Remarkable Facts About Cholesterol Continued…

6. Exercise boosts good cholesterol – just one of the many good things regular exercise can do, a recent study in the Journal of Lipid Research suggests that those workouts might affect cholesterol differently depending on the race and gender of the patient. In each of the groups the researchers studied, physical activity equal to an extra hour of mild exercise or a half hour of moderate exercise per week, was linked to an increase in HDL (good) cholesterol. The bad (LDL) cholesterol dropped only in women, and total cholesterol dropped only in African-American women.

7. Cholesterol free food can still raise cholesterol – only in animal based foods like milk, eggs and meat, even though you’ll see foods that can honestly say they are “cholesterol free”, that doesn’t mean they’re exactly good for your cholesterol levels. Fried foods and baked goods are loaded with trans fats (partially hydrogenated vegetable oils) and these, along with saturated fats, are the biggest causes of getting high cholesterol from food – yet they aren’t listed as cholesterol on any package. Read labels with care, looking for fat as well as cholesterol content before deciding if a food is a healthy option.

8. High cholesterol can cause erectile dysfunction (ED) – high cholesterol numbers have been linked to a higher risk of erectile dysfunction, kidney failure and even Alzheimer’s disease. A 2009 study found that diets high in cholesterol brought an increased risk of developing cirrhosis of the live or liver cancer. A Swedish study from 2005 suggests that men with total cholesterol of around 270 mg/dL and over were 4.5 times more likely to develop testicular cancer than men with total cholesterol numbers of 220 mg/dL or below.

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At the annual meeting of the American Heart Association, research confirmed the benefits to the heart of a lifetime of exercise, while another study investigated an intriguing treatment for hearts that aren’t so healthy.

Let’s start off talking about the healthy hearts and how to keep yours that way. It seems there is a reward for a lifetime of fitness – as a senior your heart will hold onto more youthful characteristics than aging hearts typically do.

The study involved healthy subjects over 65 free of chronic diseases (things like high blood pressure or diabetes) who’d been recruited from a project known as the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study that called for participants to keep track of their weekly activity over a period of 15-25 years.

Upon joining the new study the subjects took cardiopulmonary stress tests, had ultrasounds of the heart and blood vessels as well as an echocardiogram, all so the team could get a clear picture of the health of the subjects’ hearts.

Exercise was measured by the number of days each week the person participated in exercise training.

Here’s what the team found: the more exercise a subject had done over the years, the more likely they were to have held onto the youthful characteristics of their hearts.

Those who exercised 4 to 5 times a week over a lifetime had about 54% of the benefits seen in “master” athletes. Those who exercised 2 to 3 times per week saw significant benefit as well – an impressive 42%.

Earlier work had identified those who could be considered “master” athletes – seniors who had exercised 6 to 7 days a week over the preceding 15-25 year period were able to preserve 100% of the youthful characteristics of their heart – they had hearts to equal to those of 30 year olds.

Now to the hearts in need of help. The Orlando, Florida meeting of the American Heart Association also saw the presentation of some promising new research that found stem cell therapy improves heart function, ability to exercise and overall outcomes in patients with severely enlarged hearts.

In this work, patients underwent a procedure where bone marrow derived stem cells were delivered to the injured part of their heart. Measurements of the patients’ heart dimension and function, exercise capacity and markers of heart failure were taken before the procedure and every 3 months following the stem cell therapy.

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The Latest News In Heart Health Continued…

One year later, the survival of those treated with stem cells was 93%, while it was 70% for patients who didn’t have the stem cell therapy.

The subjects who did have the stem cell treatment also had better heart function, increased capacity to exercise and a reduction in the markers for heart failure progression. All encouraging signs to be sure.

Of course these results are preliminary, so further study to confirm them will be needed before this therapy becomes widely available.

The good news is that the findings do suggest that stem cell therapy may be a solid, viable treatment option for those who have advanced heart enlargement due to dilated cardiomyopathy. Certainly something to discuss with your healthcare team if you, or someone you love, has this condition.

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The pair of studies conducted by a team of cancer researchers suggests low cholesterol doesn’t deserve its worrisome reputation, or its association with a higher cancer risk earned thanks to a series of studies in the 1980s.

This latest work found low total cholesterol was associated with almost 60% less risk of the most aggressive type of prostate cancer. Higher levels of good cholesterol, also known as HDL, were shown to offer protection against lung, liver and other cancers.

In fact, the experts wonder if cholesterol levels might drop before cancer is diagnosed. This suggests that the lower cholesterol levels might be the result, rather than the cause, of the cancer.

In the first study, conducted by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), men with HDL numbers over 55 mg/dL (HDL of 40-50 are average for men) had an 11% decrease in cancer risk. This included lung and liver cancers.

The subjects were 29,000 male smokers in Finland, studied over an 18-year period, making the study the largest to find a relationship between HDL and cancer.

At first the results backed up what had been learned during the studies of the 1980s – men with lower total cholesterol had a higher cancer risk. The trend disappeared when the researchers excluded cases of cancer that had been diagnosed during the first nine years of the study. These men might have had cancer, but without being diagnosed yet.

“Very few studies measured [HDL], and any relationship between HDL and overall cancer risk had therefore not been adequately evaluated,” said Dr. Demetrius Albanes of the NCI and the lead author of the study.

Of course more work is needed to confirm the results… especially in women and nonsmokers.

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Cholesterol Levels And Cancer Continued…

In the second study, the same team looked at 5,500 men aged 55 and over. Those with total cholesterol numbers under 200 mg/dL (”desirable” according to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute) had about a 60% lower risk of high grade prostate cancer, the most aggressive type.

The decrease in risk was only in the high-grade tumors and not in less serious cases of this type of cancer. “It was a notable reduction, which is not that often seen in prostate cancer research,” explains lead researcher Elizabeth Platz, a cancer epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. This pattern was reported in an earlier study conducted by Platz and her colleagues.

The second study was inspired by a growing body of evidence that suggests statin drugs (like Lipitor) might protect against high-grade prostate cancer. More studies, including randomized, controlled trials, are needed to confirm the link between cholesterol and prostate cancer.

In an editorial that accompanies the two studies, Eric Jacobs, an epidemiologist with the American Cancer Society says, “[It's] a very new, exciting question, but we need to do a great deal more research before we have any clear answers.” The findings of both studies on cholesterol and cancer raise key questions, and are likely to be very interesting areas for future study.

In other words… stay tuned.

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