Cause of Atherosclerosis:

Hyperlipidemia is a significant contributor to the atherosclerosis disease process which leads to hypertension, coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, peripheral vascular disease, and diabetes mellitus. A world renowned Cardiologist, William C. Roberts, MD not only described atherosclerosis as the leading cause of heart attacks, stroke, and peripheral vascular disease, he also claimed that cholesterol intake causes atherosclerosis. According to this author, the evidence which supports that cholesterol results in atherosclerosis include a higher frequency of atherosclerotic events in populations with relatively high cholesterol levels compared with populations with relatively low cholesterol levels. Atherosclerosis is easily produced in herbivores (rabbits, monkeys) by feeding them a high-cholesterol (egg yolks) or high-saturated-fat (animal fat) diet. Lowering total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels decreases first and repeat atherosclerotic events and decreases plaque size. Furthermore, societies with a high frequency of hypertension or a high frequency of cigarette smoking but low cholesterol levels rarely get atherosclerosis. Therefore, to decrease the risk of atherosclerotic events, Roberts recommends that LDL cholesterol needs to be <100 mg/dL and ideally <70 mg/dL. Total cholesterol should be <150 mg/dL, and the high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol >20 mg/dL. The low HDL goal is rationalized by the author that levels below 20 are not dangerous if LDL and total cholesterol is also low. (1)

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