United States: Research suggests that ‘good’ cholesterol presents serious medical risks that might even lead to blindness.
How beneficial is good cholesterol?
Modern medical science considers High-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL) to be beneficial cholesterol since research has proven its protective benefits for the heart. The body carries cholesterol out of arteries through the blood to the liver for breakdown, which creates heart attack and stroke protection.
However, the research conducted since then has devised arguments opposed to this prevailing belief of better results from increased quantity.
Research conducted by scientists revealed that elevated HDL cholesterol levels increase the chance of developing the untreatable eye disease glaucoma.
The study determined that patients with the highest HDL levels had a ten percent higher incidence of glaucoma than people with lower levels.
Glaucoma advancement leads to vision decline in patients.
However, people with LDL cholesterol at its peak exhibited 8 percent less probability than others of acquiring glaucoma.
What more are the experts stating?
The observed risk existed strictly among participants above 55 years old, according to study investigators from Sun Yat-sen University in southern China.
According to a writing in the British Journal of Opthalmology, “HDL cholesterol has been regarded as the “good cholesterol” for seven decades.”
“However, this study demonstrates that high levels of [it] are not consistently associated with a favorable prognostic outcome. This could prompt a re-evaluation of lipid management strategies in patients at risk for glaucoma,” it continued.
“Further studies are needed to investigate the mechanisms behind these associations,” it added, as the Daily Mail reported.
Cholesterol’s role in the body
Cholesterol exists as a necessary fatty substance in human blood, which serves essential roles throughout the digestion of food and helps create vitamin D and hormones.
The bloodstream accumulates excess cholesterol when individuals eat fatty foods without exercise, maintain body weight healthily, or smoke and consume alcohol.
A person with high LDL cholesterol never displays symptoms, but the condition results in blocked blood vessels, which increases the likelihood of heart problems and strokes.
The researchers conducted a health questionnaire survey with more than 400,000 Britons aged between 40 to 69.
The subjects had all their blood tested with specific measurements for blood fat levels.
Subjects who evolved into glaucoma patients exhibited characteristics such as former cigarette use as well as medication consumption for reducing cholesterol (statins) and a background of medical conditions, including diabetes, hypertension, and heart ailments.
The experts added that heightened HDL was “associated with a 5 percent higher risk,” Daily Mail reported.
This “might not accurately capture individuals’ typical lipid levels,” they described.