Lindy, the almost ubiquitous presence of trans fats from partially hydrogenated vegetable oils in prepared foods, and especially in margerines, has turned out to be a significant source of elevated blood cholesterol. The food industry in the US is being more concious of this and many foods are being advertised as "trans-fat-free." Is that also happening in the UK?

Why Statins Are Worth the Risk

Source: Evening Standard; London (UK)
By DR MARK PORTER
Posted on: Tuesday, 16 January 2007, 18:00 CST
http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/...ource=r_health

REPORTS that the statin family of cholesterol-lowering drugs may increase the risk of Parkinson's disease are likely to have worried a significant proportion of the two-andahalf million people in England thought to be taking them. So are they right to be concerned?

As with all such reports, it pays to ignore the headlines and read the small print. Researchers in America have found a link between low levels of "bad" cholesterol (LDL) and Parkinson's disease in a small study of just over 200 volunteers. The findings suggest that people with low levels of LDL in their blood are three times more likely to develop Parkinson's than those with high levels. And statins work by lowering LDL levels.

But that is as far as the study goes.

There is no evidence that reducing cholesterol levels per se, or using statins to do it, increases the risk of Parkinson's. Plans are being drawn up for a much larger study into a possible link, but in the meantime people should keep taking their pills as normal.

Statins are the biggest single recent advance in the battle against heart disease - a battle which they are helping us to win. The latest Department of Health statistics show that premature deaths in the UK from heart disease-have fallen by more than a third since 1996, and estimate that statins now save around 10,000 lives a year.

High cholesterol levels lead to premature furring-up of the arteries and dramatically increase the risk of stroke and heart attack - two conditions that kill or maim hundreds of thousands of people a year (one in four of us will die from a stroke or heart attack).

Parkinson's disease may be an awful condition, particularly when it strikes young, but the lifetime odds of developing it don't exceed one in 40 even if you live well into your eighties.

Even if a link is eventually found - and it's a big if - for many people the benefits of protection against a common threat are going to outweigh increased vulnerability to one they are much less likely to encounter. Or, to put it another way, the average person is around 10 times more likely to die from a stroke or heart attack than develop Parkinson's.