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From: werner@aecom.UUCP (Craig Werner)
Newsgroups: net.med,net.bio
Subject: Re: Dogs (People) and cholesterol
Message-ID: <1437@aecom.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 21-Apr-85 11:59:44 EST
Article-I.D.: aecom.1437
Posted: Sun Apr 21 11:59:44 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 23-Apr-85 01:36:38 EST
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Organization: Albert Einstein Coll. of Med., NY
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>                      .  The claim is made that dogs do not suffer any ill
> effects from eating lots of cholesterol.  Can anyone confirm, refute, or
> explain this phenomenon?

	Actually there is still some dispute whether eating lots of cholesterol
causes measurably ill effects in people.
	Although the following are undisputed:

	1. The lower one's Serum cholesterol the lower one's chance of having a
heart attack.
	2. Diet low in Cholesterol lowers serum cholesterol - but not a lot.

	The trouble is that the slight lowering in serum cholesterol due to
diet doesn`t cause a significant drop in heart disease. The body makes 80-90%
of its own cholesterol, and more or less, the more you eat, the less you make,
and vice-versa.  
	The more or less is the caveat. The system isn't 100% efficient, which
is why diet has that small effect in the first place.
	Certain drugs (like Cholestyramine, which significantly lower
Cholesterol - 40-50% drop), do have significant effect but these act on total
body cholesterol.
	
	Dogs, therefore, if the source is to be believed (and I have no reason
to doubt it) might have a better regulatory system than man, and adjust their
own production more keenly, so diet would have even less effect.
-- 
				Craig Werner
				!philabs!aecom!werner
		What do you expect?  Watermelons are out of season!