• 1998: A Seattle team analyzed the data from seventeen different population-based studies that reported the relationship between triglycerides and heart disease. Men with higher triglycerides had a thirty-two percent increased risk of heart disease; women with higher levels had a seventy-six percent increased risk.
• 1999: The Harvard Nurses Study did a fourteen year follow-up on 80,082 women, comparing incidence of heart disease. Findings show that the higher the intake of protein, the lower the risk of heart disease in this group of women who were 34 to 59 years old at the outset of the study.
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Twenty-First Century Diagnosis and Treatment
If you have any combination of risk factors, symptoms or family history that makes you wonder about your longterm prospects for heart disease, look for a physician with a really up-to-date approach. I recommend that he or she not only understand the conventional risk factors that we ' ve talked about in this chapter, but also be familiar with other indicators of cardiac risk and test you for them. Note: These ranges are based on our forty years of clinical experience. The indicators include:
• Total cholesterol: Normal is considered 120 to 240 mg / dL; ideal is less than 200 mg / dL.
• Low-density lipoprotein( LDL) is the bad cholesterol. Normal levels range between 60 and 160 mg / dL; ideal is less than 130 mg / dL( the lower the better).
• High-density lipoprotein( HDL) is known as the good cholesterol. Normal levels range between 35 and 80 mg / dL; ideal is more than 50 mg / dL( the higher the better).
• Triglyceride levels range normally between 30 and 160 mg / dL; ideal is less than 100 mg / dL( the lower the better).
• HDL to total cholesterol ratio: A measurement of your cardiovascular risk; average risk females: 4.4; average risk males: 4.9.( Ideal is to be below average. For both, the lower the better.)
• Homocysteine is a by-product of defective protein metabolism. An elevated level is a powerful marker for heart disease and stroke risk. High homocysteine levels also indicate a deficiency of folic acid, a B vitamin.( Homocysteine level can be reduced with the intake of vitamins B6, B12, and folic acid.) A normal level is 5 to 15 mmol / L; ideal is less than 8 mmol / L.
• Lipoprotein( a) is a high-risk component of LDL cholesterol. In the last ten years it has been recognized as a strong risk factor for heart disease and stroke. Elevated levels may indicate insufficient intake of vitamin C, which is needed to maintain healthy blood vessels. A normal level is below 20 mg / L; ideal is less than 15 mg / L.
• C-reactive protein is an antibody. It appears that some heart attack victims actually have an infectious component to their disease, which has little to do with following a sound dietary approach. The result is chronically inflamed blood vessels that are widely regarded as part of the atherosclerotic disease process. High levels of C- reactive protein have been found to increase the risk of heart disease by four and a half times. The ideal is less than. 55 mg / dL. Elevated levels would indicate you are at risk.
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