Nerdy Science Blog

Crestor, a cholesterol drug designed, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration on Friday for children and teenagers with high cholesterol caused by genetic disease. Crestor was developed by the company AstraZeneca PLC. The drug is suitable for heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia patients age 10 to 17. Currently there are 10 million people worldwide affected by the genetic disease. Crestor generated $3.6 billion sales for AstraZeneca in 2008. The patents of the drug will expire in July 2016.

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It is not how fat you look that determines you risk of having a heart disease, but it is where your fat is located in your body that determines it.  People with trim waistline please don’t laugh too early as you are risk free from heart disease.

Research team of the Framingham Heart Study presented the thickness of a person’s neck can help to determine the heart risk at a meeting of American Heart Association.  This can give as many as or more information about the heart risk than waist measuring.  3,300 women and men over age 51 were studied by measuring their necks, the cholesterol level and blood glucose level.  The risk of getting heart disease is determined by the level of cholesterol and blood glucose.  The average circumferences of the neck for men are 40.5cm and 34.2cm for women.  People with fatter neck have lower good cholesterol, which is the high-density lipoprotein (HDL), and higher level of blood glucose.  The thickness of the neck does not influence the bad cholesterol, namely low-density lipoprotein (LDL).

People with 3cm wider neck have 2.2 mg decrease in good cholesterol per decilitre of blood (mg/dl), whereas women are 2.7mg/dl.  Human subjects with 3cm more neck size have increased blood glucose of 3.0mg/dl for men and 2.1 mg/dl for women.

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Good news for everyone with high blood cholesterol or those who scare of being one!  Scientists refuted the myth of eggs causing high blood cholesterol.

The study was done by Dr Juliet Gray, Registered Public Health Nutritionist, and Professor Bruce Griffin, Professor of Nutrition Metabolism from the University of Surrey, showing that eggs had small or clinically insignificant effect on blood cholesterol.  The study influenced the British Heart Foundation to remove its eggs intake limitation recommendation.  Food Standards Agency also announced that eggs can be consumed as long as the diet is balanced.

The researcher said that only one third of the cholesterol came from the diet, which was raised by saturated fat, not eggs.  Increase in blood cholesterol can increase the risk of heart disease.  People who are overweight, overweight and lack of body movements are more likely to have high blood cholesterol.

This study may not be good news to everyone, for instant the eggs dealers.  They can’t brand their eggs as “Cholesterol-free” or “Low-Cholesterol” eggs.  Maybe they should link eggs with high blood pressure, and then they can brand the eggs as “Saltless” eggs!

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