With all the bad news about our artery-clogging diets, new research gives hope that a natural process in our bodies called autophagy (which literally means “self-eating” in Greek) not only keeps cells healthy but may also remove cholesterol from our body.
Approximately one in every six adults—17% of the U.S. adult population—has high blood cholesterol. Anyone can develop high cholesterol, which greatly increases the risk for heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States. Cholesterol accumulation in artery walls can lead to atherosclerosis — the narrowing of the arteries, which in turn, leads to blocking blood flow to the heart. The condition can cause heart attacks and strokes.
Although the process of autophagy has been well-documented by the medical community in the past, this new study conducted by researchers at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute in Canada, is the first to link autophagy to the way cholesterol is moved from our artery walls. The study showed that the autophagy pathway is responsible for 50 per cent of the body's removal of cholesterol from the arteries into the blood and then to our liver for disposal.
What do the Canadian findings mean? It could help in the development of new drugs that will increase the removal of cholesterol from our bodies and halt the progression of heart disease. Stay tuned for further developments.
The results were published in the journal "Cell Metabolism."
