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Article: The good, the bad, and the ugly. ("good" and "bad" cholesterol)
- Article from:
- Medical Update
- Article date:
- June 1, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 Benjamin Franklin Literary & Medical Society, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The title of that Clint Eastwood movie would do well to describe what you should know about your blood cholesterol levels--and may not hear about from your doctor. By now, most of us are familiar with the "good" and "bad" cholesterol (HDL and LDL), but there's another kind of fatty material in the blood that can be very ugly. These are the triglycerides that are measured as part of a "lipid profile," or overall blood fat determination.
The conventional wisdom in medical circles has been that triglycerides alone do not affect the heart, and therefore are of little significance, even if elevated, if the other components of the lipid profile are within normal ...