This article summarizes the latest thinking on Atherosclerosis. As the opening blurb says: " The long-held conception of how the disease develops turns out to be wrong". The authors describe how LDL accumulates in the artery walls, becomes inflamed, and then rupture through the artery wall. With the rupture, the blood clots. If the clot is big enough, it will halt the flow of blood to the heart. They back this theory with the usual SA level of discussion, which is to make the material accessable to the layman.

I cannot give you a direct link to the article. You will need to go to the web page of Scientific America, find the page for the May 2002 magazine (currently the "current" issue), click on the article, and buy it.

It is worth reading

thanks for the heads up! I'll read it next time I'm in the library.

Thanks for bringing this article to my attention. I bought the magazine today for the express purpose of reading it.
It is a huge step forward even though it implicates cholesterol in the cardio-vascular disease process, because the cholesterol migrates to the scene of the inflamation. The inflamation being the primary cause of the chain of events leading to the cardiovascular disease.
It makes a strong point that C-Reactive protein is another strong indicator for the disease. Lost somewhere in the body of the article is the statement "Investigators have yet to explore the connections between other risk factors with the intensity accorded to LDL,(understatement of the year, Oldsalty) but they have uncovered suggestive links. Diabetes, for instance, elevates glucose levels in the blood; this sugar can enhance the glycation, and thus the inflamatory properties of LDL,"

Since our way of eating is expressly designed to control our blood sugar it sounds as though we are on the right track.....

Thanks again for letting me know about the article.

PS I just noticed that there is a 2 page advertizement in this edition for, you guessed it !...Zocor..so much for the impartiality of this scientific journal.

It really is a fascinating article. I was also very intrigued by the concept of the arteries as living tissue, and not as "copper" pipes. Up to now I know that I have looked upon them as “pipes” and not as tissue. The article did not explore how the body gets rid of the inflamed LDL, or perhaps the caps stay and do not go away. This was not discussed in the article. The role of HDL to remove cholesterol was mentioned, but never followed up on. There were some intriguing guesses as to how to control the caps, but everything was speculation. It seems that the more we know, the more we do not know.

Glad you found the article interesting.