Cholesterol and Strokes

For years doctors questioned the role. high cholesterol played in strokes. But a large study published in summer 2002 may have answered that question. Researchers at Tel Aviv University in. israe! followed 11,177 patients with CHD for six to eight years. As levels of total cholesterol and LDL increased, so did the likelihood that the patients would have an ischemic stroke—the most common form, in which a blood clot blocks the flow of blood to the brain. Another study, in Circulation, the journal of the American Heart Association, found a strong connection between high triglyceride levels and stroke in heart disease patients. Triglycerides can make blood cells stickier, increasing the risk of clots.