Good Cholesterol May Not Be So Good For Some People

Having great amounts of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, known as the good cholesterol, is normally considered to be positive. However, that may not be suitable for everybody: According to a study conducted recently, more elevated levels of HDL cholesterol may not be beneficial for the hearts of postmenopausal women. HDL cholesterol guards the heart by carrying LDL cholesterol — known as the unhealthy cholesterol — far from the veins and to the liver, where it can be broken down and wiped out from the body, as per the American Heart Association. Generally, a high HDL amount alongside a low LDL amount is known to be healthy. However, in the new study that was published on July 19 in the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, the specialists found that a higher HDL cholesterol level — as estimated by a standard blood test that evaluates the aggregate cholesterol conveyed by HDL particles — may not generally be as defensive for postmenopausal women as specialists thought before.

 Furthermore, the study recommends that utilizing this conventional technique for estimating HDL cholesterol may not precisely foresee a postmenopausal woman's risk of heart diseases. That's on account of estimating HDL cholesterol isn't as easy as people think it is, confirmed lead study author Samar El Khoudary, an epidemiologist at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. HDL cholesterol isn't only one kind of molecule, it is a group of particles present in the blood, and these particles have various sizes, compositions and shapes, she further explained. An enhanced method might be to investigate the size and number of HDL particles, which can be estimated in the blood utilizing a procedure known as ion-mobility analysis, to give specialists a more precise comprehension of the effect of HDL on the heart in postmenopausal women, as per the study.