Posted on 06/27/2010 10:19:52 PM PDT by CutePuppy
The amount of cholesterol circulating in the bloodstream is partly regulated by the brain, a study in mice suggests.
It counters assumptions that levels are solely controlled by what we eat and by cholesterol production in the liver.
The US study in Nature Neuroscience found that a hunger hormone in the brain acts as the "remote control" for cholesterol travelling round the body.
Too much cholesterol causes hardened fatty arteries, raising the risk of a heart attack.
The research carried out by a US team at the University of Cincinnati found that increased levels of the hunger hormone ghrelin in mice caused the animals to develop higher levels of blood-circulating cholesterol.
Levels in the blood rise because signals from the brain prompt the liver to store less cholesterol, the researchers said.
It is known that ghrelin inhibits a receptor in the brain in its role in regulating food intake and energy use.
In a separate experiment, they found that blocking this receptor in mice also increased levels of cholesterol in the blood.
Potential treatment
The researchers said the finding needs to be replicated in humans but potentially opens up a new way of treating high cholesterol.
Study leader Professor Matthias Tschoep said: "We have long thought that cholesterol is exclusively regulated through dietary absorption or synthesis and secretion by the liver.
"Our study shows for the first time that cholesterol is also under direct 'remote control' by specific neurocircuitry in the central nervous system."
Fotini Rozakeas, cardiac nurse at British Heart Foundation, said: "This interesting study on mice shows for the first time that blood cholesterol levels can be directly controlled by signals transmitted from the brain to the liver where cholesterol is formed.
"This could potentially open up new forms of treatment to control cholesterol levels..."
.....
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
It took a study to find that out?
Have right attitude, will sleep better... Oh, it's all in your mind, anyway.
I agree, it is the same dementia the ozone hole and man-made global warming idiots have.
Correlation = causation, no matter what the research says. It's NUTZ.
Apparently, sedentary lifestyle may not matter as much, as long as you get sufficient intake of Vitamin D...
Vitamin D Deficiency Linked to Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome in Studies - FR, 2010 June 27
Goodnight, sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite.
Regards, Bart.
type II diabetes is another disease process that has way too many pills thrown at it when diet and exercise are clearly the healthier option IMO.
Yes it is, it sells lots of drugs with nasty side effects.
There are some, who think outside the box, that say high colesterol is a symptom of vitamin D deficency.
The cure is in the cause folks.
Yep. Remember when "everybody" had ulcer and the "established cause" of the ulcers was stress... until Australian physician Barry Marshall discovered the pattern of presence of H.pylory in GT, and effectiveness of antibiotic treatment.
Took him years to be taken seriously, but thereafter ulcers almost immediately disappeared from the A-list in the vocabulary of "serious" diseases.
Oh great, now my doctor is going to tell me I’m mentally ill.
You may be interested in the link at post #25.
It took a study to publish the findings.
You’re close, it is A, C, and E, (mainly C) that cause the arteries to harden and crack, which triggers the liver to produce the patch material - Cholesterol.
You see your red blood cells like everything nice and smooth, those cracks are rough and destroy them, so they tell the liver to make something to make it smooth again.
This is the backup system. If you have high cholesterol and blocked arteries, you have hard cracked arteries underneath. Lowering your cholesterol intake just forces the liver to canabalize the needed patch materials from other parts of the body, or failing that you get the problems caused by lack of red blood cells and lack of sufficient patching on those hard brittle arteries.
In the Mr. Fit study, they almost got it right. The group that had strict control on their dietary intake of cholesterol had more deaths from heart attacks and anuerisms, but the ‘cholesterol is bad’ folks won out and the dark ages continue.
The companys that make, and sell drugs are the real winners in all this.
Humph, is this the ‘hate the drug companies’ thread?
And trailer parks attract tornadoes!
AMA doctors, that follow the heard are as much to blame, if not more, but the patient that has blind faith in them because they’re a doctor can claim some as well.
Errr herd, dang it.
The hell it does. The mechanism of artery wall damage is rather less facile than "too much cholestrol".
Excellent post.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.