1.   Pattern A LDLs are large, light, buoyant “floating” LDLs that don’t get under your endothelial cells, and they don’t cause plaque formation. They are harmless.

2.   Pattern B LDL (or VLDLs) are smaller, denser LDLs that are able to wedge themselves under your epithelial cells and therefore roughen surfaces and stimulate plaque formation. These are the bad guys.
Unfortunately, when you get a standard lipid profile at your annual check-up, the LDL measured is a combination of both types. Lab measurements lump them together unless you have a very specialized panel, which most physicians don’t order.
To decipher whether or not you have an excess of the bad type, you can look at your triglycerides and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels. (HDL, or “high density lipoprotein is commonly called “good cholesterol.”)
Here is a simple way to determine if you have too much bad LDL:
1.   If your triglycerides are low and your HDL is high, then the LDL you have is the good variety.

2.   If your triglycerides are high and your HDL is low, then the LDL you have is the bad variety. The triglyceride-to-HDL ratio is a far better indicator of cardiovascular disease than the total cholesterol-to-HDL ratio that everyone uses.
Now, here’s the bottom line: Dietary fat raises your large, buoyant LDL -- the one that is harmless. Dietary sugar raises your small, dense LDL -- the one that correlates with heart disease!
So, what has happened over the past 30 years was that sugar was added to our low-fat foods to improve palatability -- in the form of either HFCS or sucrose -- and a high-carb, high-risk diet was created -- simply the worst combination for your health.
And the fiber was eliminated.

Those are all guesses / hypothesis.

How about direct Heart Scans?

Has anyone had a heart scan that measures how big a diameter your arteries have, how much is occluded? 

Is it sugar only or total carb consumption that raises bad LDL?

A heart scan may be great, but calculating VLDL from HDL and triglycerides is still valid.

It was nice of Sassenach to provide a succinct summary.

and hopefully you can survive the scan.  They inject contrast which many people are allergic to.  It's horribly invasive (they feed a catheter into your femoral artery up to your heart) and if you are in the states it's freaking expensive!  I do Myocardial Perfusion Imaging as a Nuclear Medicine Technologist....now this won't tell you how big your arteries are but it will tell you where there is ischemia in the blood vessels to your heart.  

It's just info that I found that would be helpful.  ANd if you are trying to get medical insurance.....they go on your blood numbers from a national lab...not your theory and they don't care if you don't believe in science.  If you've had a heart scan.....you won't get insurance.  Keep that in mind people when you start agreeing to scans!

Thanks Tarlach!  +1 for you!

and hopefully you can survive the scan.  They inject contrast which many people are allergic to.  It's horribly invasive (they feed a catheter into your femoral artery up to your heart) and if you are in the states it's freaking expensive!  I do Myocardial Perfusion Imaging as a Nuclear Medicine Technologist....now this won't tell you how big your arteries are but it will tell you where there is ischemia in the blood vessels to your heart.  

It's just info that I found that would be helpful.  ANd if you are trying to get medical insurance.....they go on your blood numbers from a national lab...not your theory and they don't care if you don't believe in science.  If you've had a heart scan.....you won't get insurance.  Keep that in mind people when you start agreeing to scans!

Thanks Tarlach!  +1 for you!

You mean, this guy is talking about an INVASIVE scan?

Don't they have star trek technology yet where you are scanned non-invasively and you get all the diameters in all your arteries?

hahahahaha...no star trek technology.  The scan I do is the least invasive...but you still get irradiated.  The scan he is talking about is called an angiogram....AND if they find a blockage while they are doing that...then they have to put a stent in.  If they can't put a stent in....then you are going for bypass surgery.  You don't have a choice...you have to sign those papers before they do the scan

Man, that sounds like a traitorous marketing scheme!

Quote from: ajmesa on February 08, 2010, 04:09:00 PM

Is it sugar only or total carb consumption that raises bad LDL?

I would assume (yes I know what that makes me) that it would be total carb consumption.  That is carbs that break down to glucose....

Anyone has any actual data on this? Some sugars are processed very different from normal carbs, for example, fructose (high starch countries would also be plagued with heart disease, which is not true, e.g., japan, costa rica, etc).