Breast cancer & HDL.In a study of more than 38,000 overweight women, those with low HDL (Hardware Description Language) A language used to describe the functions of an electronic circuit for documentation, simulation or logic synthesis (or all three). Although many proprietary HDLs have been developed, Verilog and VHDL are the major standards. ("good") cholesterol (under 46 mg/dL) had roughly twice the risk of breast cancer of those with high HDL (over 63 mg/dL). Researchers believe that low HDL is often a sign of insulin resistance Insulin Resistance Definition Insulin resistance is not a disease as such but rather a state or condition in which a person's body tissues have a lowered level of response to insulin, a hormone secreted by the pancreas that helps to regulate the level , also called the metabolic syndrome metabolic syndrome n. See syndrome X. Metabolic syndrome A group of risk factors for heart disease, diabetes, and stroke. . (Other signs are elevated levels of blood pressure, blood sugar, and triglycerides Triglycerides Fatty compounds synthesized from carbohydrates during the process of digestion and stored in the body's adipose (fat) tissues. High levels of triglycerides in the blood are associated with insulin resistance. .) It's not the low HDL, but high levels of insulin, androgens, or some other hormone that may raise the risk of cancer. What to do: If you're overweight, lose those extra pounds. (Low HDL wasn't linked to an increased risk of breast cancer in normal-weight women.) Exercise can help you slim down and--if you do enough--may raise your HDL. J. Nat. Cancer Inst. 96: 1152, 2004. |
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