AHA: Plaque Remover Vitamin E Risks | Health News and Information

AHA: Plaque Remover, Vitamin E Death Risk

In data presented at this year's American Heart Association annual meeting, scientists from the biotech company lipid sciences announced they are able to reverse the build up of fatty cholesterol plaque in heart arteries.

In data presented at this year's American Heart Association annual meeting, scientists from the biotech company Lipid Sciences announced they are able to reverse the build up of fatty cholesterol plaque in heart arteries.Normally, the bad cholesterol, or LDL, deposits fat into arteries, causing plaque buildup. HDL, or good cholesterol, removes the fat from the blood before it can be deposited.

Now, scientists, for the first time in the lab, were able to take HDL, remove fats from it, and convert this good cholesterol into what is essentially great cholesterol--a more powerful form of HDL, one that can act as essentially a super vacuum cleaner of the arteries that removes cholesterol plaque. Dr. Frank Sacks, Harvard researcher, says, "It's like a mini-dialysis or a plasmapharesis. In other words the blood gets taken out of the blood cells, gets put back into the body and then the plasma the liquid portion of the blood is then treated with this de-lipidation solvent which then selectively converts the HDL to the highly active HDL particles. This could impact a lot of people." The technology is now being studied in animals, and the results of monkey studies are expected in January.

Human trials are expected to begin later next year. More good news about good cholesterol. While it's still a year or more away from hitting the pharmacy shelves, the drug acomplia (rimonabant) got a boost with new data showing it helps obese patients lose weight and waist line, along with raising the good or HDL cholesterol levels in patients taking the medicine. The drug targets receptors in the brain and fat tissue.

Patients, in New York and elsewhere, taking the higher twenty milligram dose lost on average 20 pounds and 3.4 inches off their waist. Dr. Xavier P. Sunyer, the study researcher at St. Luke's Hospital in New York, says, "This is probably the limit of the drug. You're not going to get more weight loss. Now of course, this is the average. You always have people who lose a lot more and people who lose a lot less. Maybe at some time we'll be able to do a subclass analysis to determine who responds more."

Previous research presented earlier this year shows the drug also is an effective smoking cessation aid. It doubled the chances of quitting compared to a placebo in those taking it. The glory days of vitamin E are pretty much over. A new study shows that daily doses of vitamin E increases the risk of death and should be avoided in doses of over 400 international units each day. Vitamin E was once thought to prevent cardiovascular disease and cancer. After reviewing the data from 19 studies between 1993 and 2004, researchers found the increased death risk. Dr. Edgar Miller of Johns Hopkins Medical Center, the study researcher, states, "Vitamin supplements are I think the culprit and vitamin E given at 4 or 800 international units is 100 times more than you get from diet on a daily basis. So these are supra-physiologic doses. And do we need those? No."

Those taking greater than 400 international units daily were ten percent more likely to die than those who did not. There was no increased risk of death with a dose of 200 international units a day or less. Many people, in New York and elsewhere, get vitamin E in supplements that contain between 400 and 800 international units per dose. The researchers say to avoid vitamin E supplements, and instead to get it in the diet. It's found in green leafy vegetables, vegetable oils, and nuts.

For more information about Cholesterol, Click here.