1. Provide the title of your story or series and the names of the journalists involved.
"Your Unstoppable Heart" by Paul John Scott.
2. List date(s) this work was published or aired.
Jan/Feb 2010 Men's Health.
3. Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.
Cholesterol control, "the main focus of preventive health care in the United States" according to John Abramson,MD, author of Overdosed America, is predicated on the notion of a unitary entity known as LDL. Yet what has gone unacknowledged within medicine today, barring those engaged in basic science dedicated to the study of lipids, is that LDL cholesterol is actually an umbrella term for 11 different subtypes. Standard cholesterol blood tests do not distinguish between these subtypes, yet according to a series of recent findings, only three of these subtypes are associated with heart disease. This has profound implications for cholesterol control and diet. For instance, we are told to restrict our intake of saturated fat, advice which generally leads us to eat more carbohydrates. Yet while saturated fat from dairy and very likely red meat increases LDL, it essentially only increases the 8 largely benign forms of LDL. Conversely, carbohydrates in the diet increase the three forms which are dangerous, and lowers good cholesterol. Thus, "healthy eating" in the form of low fat foods that are comprised largely of carbohydrates, increases the risk of developing heart disease. Moreover, we are medicating millions of Americans with cholesterol reducing drugs despite the likelihood that many of them only have elevated forms of LDL that are benign.
4. Explain types of documents, data or Internet resources used. Were FOI or public records act requests required? How did this affect the work?
Peer reviewed lipid science research studies.
5. Explain types of human sources used.
Spent time in the laboratory of Ronald M. Krauss, MD, the UC Berkeley researcher who first discovered the heterogeneity of LDL.
6. Results (if any).
N/a.
7. Follow-up (if any). Have you run a correction or clarification on the report or has anyone come forward to challenge its accuracy? If so, please explain.
The issue inspires arguments in comment sections of nutrition websites. Those that the author viewed were generally favorable. A source wrote a letter to the editor to complain about the article's conclusions,
offering other studies as evidence of a contrary position, but those studies addressed a different question. No formal challenges to the article's accuracy have been made that I am aware of.
8. Advice to other journalists planning a similar story or project.
Expect to approach the subject of nutrition science and health policy with a thick skin and an eye for ideological orientation.