For many years, we’ve heard that high cholesterol can clog arteries and increase heart attack risk. But new research suggests that high cholesterol might pose an additional danger – it can also change the normal heartbeat, which could lead to sudden death.
David Fedida: It’s an arrhythmia that’s the terminating effect – an abnormal electrical beat.
EarthSky spoke with Dr. David Fedida of the University of British Columbia. He explained that the heartbeat is generated by a small electrical current, which flows through the heart. This electricity, in turn, relies on the cells of the heart.
David Fedida: Normally, the cells are like little batteries. They sit with a negative voltage across them. And then when the impulse comes along and the heart beats, these little channels, these little proteins, open these pores, and the voltage changes.
Fedida said these protein pores are key to conducting the heart’s electrical current. In a 2009 study, Fedida found that high cholesterol affects the distribution of the protein channels across the cells.
David Fedida: If these proteins aren’t in the right place, and opening and closing at the right time, then the heartbeat isn’t normal.
He said the way cholesterol changes these proteins can cause the heartbeat to quicken, or even fail. However, he said, the cholesterol-lowering drugs that many people with high cholesterol already take may help normalize the heart’s electrical activity. An abnormal heartbeat is known as a cardiac arrhythmia. Dr. Fedida explained how arrhythmias occur.
David Fedida: For the heart to beat in an orderly way, which it does in all of us, normally, there’s an impulse that starts in the top left hand corner of the heart. It goes throughout all the cells of the heart, so all the cells fire together. You could imagine, for that to happen normally, everything has to be closely aligned and fit together. But, if something is going wrong, that can become abnormal. So this abnormality that occurs gives rise to an arrhythmia.
He said one of the things that can go wrong is within the cells themselves.
David Fedida: One of the amazing things I never really understood was that the proteins in our cells that cause muscles to contract don’t last very long – only a few hours or days. The body breaks them down and remakes again. These protein pores, that we call ion channels, in the heart’s electrical system are subject to the same control. They are synthesized inside the cell and they’re transported to the cell’s surface. They stay at the cell surface for a few hours, and then they internalize back into the cells and they are either degraded and remade again, or transported and reappear at the cell surface. That’s going on all the time in the normal heart.
Fedida said his study shows high cholesterol is a catalyst for disrupting the electrical flow of the heart.
David Fedida: We found that cholesterol affects that. It changes the way these little protein pores are normally trafficked, or recycled. That means, that’s going to alter number of channels and fundamentally alter the electrical activity in the heart. Since the heart’s electrical activity depends upon each element of the system working in concert, it could distort that electrical activity.
Fedida’s research was funded by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of BC & Yukon and was a collaborative study with Dr. Stephane Hatem at the University of Paris.
2 wks ago I was hospitalized with a crazy arrhythmia that was so wild the ER nurse ran to the cardio ward to get a different monitor as she thought the ER monitor was broken. Alas it wasn’t. This study might be a clue to what is happening. Thank you for providing the latest research.
Pat, thanks for commenting. Hope this info does help in some way. Glad you’re okay.
Best,
Deborah
What does enticing even more people to get on worthless and deatructive drugs have to do with the “Earth & Sky”? What a shame. The take over of the “Voice of clear science” by corporate food, big pharma and other detractors to our quality of life. I reported this program to the program director, and to the members of the programming commitee at my local community radio station. If I wanted to hear this organized medical propaganda, I’d just turn on the TV!
Hello Paula, thank you for your concern. I don\’t believe this podcast mentioned drugs of any kind. It\’s a story about medical research. Dr. Fedida\’s study was funded by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. Here\’s their website: http://ww2.heartandstroke.ca/splash/
On EarthSky, the podcast was what we call \’unsponsored.\’ It was not paid for by any particular sponsor. But of course someone does have to pay to keep EarthSky on the air. It is paid for by sponsors and supplied free of charge to radio stations. We are trying out more shows about medical research because it is part of science, and with the hope of being able to apply for funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health. As you can see from our website, EarthSky reports on Water, Energy, Health, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Earth, Space and the Human World. We do, in fact, consider human beings as integral to the whole picture of the Earth and sky.
Thank you for your input.
Deborah Byrd
What!?? He TOTALLY mentioned and then promoted increased use of “STATINS” or “cholesterol lowering” drugs! Please listen to it again! If you are concerned about medical issues, why not do more EARTHY (Earth & Sky??) things like telling people about Elderberry extract for Swine flu rather than getting a shot, for example (see below), but… WARNING!!!! There won’t be as much money in it for you as promoting quality of life ruining “cholesterol” “medicine”. This is an example of what “medical” research I’d expect from YOU of all people! Much more to do with EARTH than “Big Pharma”!
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19682714?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DefaultReportPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum
Huh! Some “Clear Voice for Science” you’re turning out to be! Besides, how can you say in the same sentence that there are no sponsors, but your podcast is paid for by sponsors???
I’ll be listening….
Paula Sperry
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David Fedida finds additional heart danger of high cholesterol
Name: Deborah Byrd
Comment: Hello Paula, thank you for your concern. I don\\\’t believe this podcast mentioned drugs of any kind. It\\\’s a story about medical research. Dr. Fedida\\\’s study was funded by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. Here\\\’s their website: http://ww2.heartandstroke.ca/splash/ On EarthSky, the podcast was what we call \\\’unsponsored.\\\’ It was not paid for by any particular sponsor. But of course someone does have to pay to keep EarthSky on the air. It is paid for by sponsors and supplied free of charge to your community radio station. If you\\\’ll tell me their call letters, we\\\’ll call them and let them know they are not under any obligation to play any particular show in the EarthSky series. We are trying out more shows about medical research because it is part of science, and with the hope of being able to apply for funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health. As you can see from our website, EarthSky reports on Water, Energy, Health, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Earth, Space and the Human World. Thank you for your input. Deborah Byrd
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Paula, I hear you. Sorry about the oversight on the drug issue. You’re right – I didn’t listen carefully enough. I have high cholesterol myself and control it with Chinese herbs. So personally I agree with you.
All the best,
Deborah
I searched out this link after hearing the Earth and Sky piece, which I always enjoy hearing. I was surprised and a bit confused at the subject matter, and admittedly just slightly perturbed to hear the piece end with mention of statins. But, since both of my parents have heart conditions that concern the electrical activity and they both have high cholesterol (my mom’s situation sounds much like Pat’s–above), I was happy to be informed of this research even though it was featured on the “wrong” program, so to speak. For the record, I believe this was the final quote of the short piece: “he also said that cholesterol lowering drugs–that many people already take–may help normalize the heart’s electrical activity.” Not exactly an endorsement for the pharmaceutical companies, but I sort of “get” how Paula was triggered to respond so negatively. I agree with her plug for Elderberry extract, as well. ;-)
I look forward to hearing the next Earth and Sky segment!
Hi Mary! Thanks for checking in. Yes, I missed that quote about cholesterol lowering drugs. My bad. As I said to Paula, I also have high cholesterol and am sensitive to this subject, too. Personally, I’ve been able to control mine with Chinese herbs. All I can say is that we present many ideas on our show that scare, bother and sometimes torment us (climate change, species loss, plastics in the oceans, to name a few) – or that we don’t agree with (some technologies keep me awake at night) – it’s part of the job. We’re really not trying to ‘endorse’ anything. We just try to stay neutral and report on what scientists say.
Thanks for visiting. All the best to you!
Deborah
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This is a very interesting read, i printed it out so i can read it on my way to work.