Biology

The news about the discovery of the female sex hormone progesterone in a plant amazed me and really caught my attention. The news wedged my interest because it seemed very unlikely to find a female sex hormone in a plant. It made me realize that there are so many things yet to be discovered in plants even though man has been studying them since time immemorial. For the longest time, scientists believed that only animals can produce sex hormones. So when the American Chemical Society published their discovery, a lot of people, including myself, were very much fascinated.
  
 The discovery of female sex hormone in a plant is a great breakthrough in physiology. Sex hormones are vital in the functionality of animals. Physiology basically deals with the study of the functions of living systems. Hence, find progesterone in plants calls for an in-depth study as to why it exists there and for what purpose. As aforementioned, scientists have long studied plants but it is only until recently that they discovered the existence of progesterone in some plants. This just means that the physiology of plants is not as simple as what was thought of before. Physiology is a broad area of science that focuses on very specific systems. A small discovery may lead to more complex findings in the future.
  
Physiology is a very important science because it works hand in hand with health sciences and medical technology. Everything in the field of medicine must be based in physiology because it serves as its foundation. Living systems must be carefully studied before pushing and implementing any bio-related technology. Needless to say, physiology is a basic building block of biology. Learning things like the existence of progesterone is some plants are great in the further development of science.

Evaluation of the Validity of the MAND in Assessing Motor Impairment in Young Children Article Summary 
The article featured a study on the validity and discrimination accuracy of an assessment tool used for identifying motor impairment among young children. (MAND) or the McCarron Assessment of Neuromuscular Development was compared with the most commonly used test which is the (MABC) or Movement Assessment Battery for Children. Children were then selected for testing and observations are recorded for statistical analyses to assess the validity of MAND. The results have shown that there are significant differences between the 2 tests. MAND was found to be more inconsistent and at the same time not as varied and sensitive in making assessment that MABC. It appeared to be more restricted in the type of skills assessed. In the end, MABC was found to be the more effective means of identifying the level of motor impairment with young children.

Biological Psychology The Human Nervous System  
The study showed that motor skills such as voluntary movement or locomotion, manual dexterity, equilibrium, gait as well as fine motor skills are poor among children with apparent neurological deficits caused by autism, cerebral palsy, attention deficit hyperactivity and even anxiety disorders. These factors lie within the normal development of the brain and the entire nervous system. These involve the primary motor cortex of the brain. Specific areas of the brain are found to be affected. Ataxia for example is a motor disorder which demonstrates inability to coordinate muscle movement.

Relation to Everyday Experience    
Motor impairment serves as an indication of neurological deficit.  Detection is important to provide intervention or therapy for young children with inborn mental deficits. Our nervous system and the brain, indeed has a crucial role for coordination and control.

Metabolism, the biochemical mechanism through which the food consumed is converted to energy, is a very essential process that occurs in all living organisms.  Energy is required in the body of all organisms even at rest to perform vital functions that keep an organism alive. Breathing, blood circulation, regulation of hormones and growth are some of the vital functions that require energy (Bender, 2002). Basal metabolic energy is the amount of energy spent by the body while resting. Metabolism varies from one organism to another as well as from one person to another.

Bender, (2002) have clearly stated that organisms which have a high metabolic rate burn calories faster than those with low metabolic rate. Birds and mammals have higher metabolic rates as compared to fish and reptiles. Differences in metabolic rates also occur between organisms of the same classification. For example, a man and a rodent have different metabolic rates though they are both classified as mammals. Differences also, occur between organisms of the same species. A small person have different metabolic rate from a big person. There are various factors that affect the metabolic rates of different animals. Body temperature as well as the surrounding temperature, work, and body size are some of the factors that affect the metabolic rate of an animal.

Birds, which belong to the homoeothermic group of animals, have higher body temperatures than those animals belonging to the poiklothermic group. The fundamental source of energy for birds as well as other organisms is the sun. Energy from the sun is utilized through the process of photosynthesis by green plants. Birds acquire energy by eating green leaves or products from plants. After obtaining this energy, they use it to build tissues, make eggs, process brain information, and power all their activities including flight. Birds which are small animals tend to loss heat more than other big animals. This is because they have a very large surface area as compared to volume ratio. The surface of a bird is also proportionately large as compared to the mass of the metabolizing tissues. Birds have a large amount of the active protoplasmic tissue as comported to big animals. Due to excessive loss of heat, the metabolic rate of birds is high in order to maintain their body temperate and keep them alive. Larger animals do not lose a lot of heat as compared to birds. The surface of large animals is proportionately large as compared to their volume ration (Ehrlich, Dobkin, and Wheye, 1988).

Ehrlich, Dobkin, and Wheye (1988), states that, birds also tend to be more active than other animals. This means that they require a lot of energy to power their activities. Humming bird for example, display high levels of activity as compared to all other living creatures. As a result they have the highest metabolic rate of all animals. In order to maintain the high metabolic rates, birds consume almost the same weight of food in comparison to their bodies. Warm blooded animals could not be created in a size less than a humming bird or a shrew. It would be very difficult for such a creature to eat at a speed that would enable it maintain its body temperature.

While active, the metabolic rate of birds is higher than their basal metabolic rate. Hummingbirds become torpid at night and allow their body temperature to drop until it equals or is close to the surrounding air. This is a mechanism that allows them to conserve energy especially at night when they do not have access to food. When the metabolic rate of humming birds is at its peak, they are just a few hours from death due to starvation (Ehrlich, Dobkin, and Wheye, 1988).

In this article, the authors investigate the behavior of desert ants, Cataglyphis fortis, as they try to search their nests after their navigation system has failed. Through the experiment, the authors tried to ascertain if there are factors other than the distance traveled which affects the search pattern of the ants. The authors hypothesized that the distance traveled is not the only factor that determines the ants uncertainty but there are also other factors that affect the ants confidence in their path integrator.

 Desert ants do not leave a chemical train but rather make use of a strategy known as path integration wherein the ants remember the distances and directions traveled and use them to return safely and quickly back to their nests. However, these path integrators are error prone and previous studies have shown that if the ants do not find the nest where it should be according to the path integrator, they begin a systematic search pattern to quickly find the nest entrance. This systematic search follows a predetermined shape but the width of the search depends on the length of the foraging excursion. If the ant had traveled a small distance in its foraging excursion, its systematic search loop would be much smaller than if it had traveled a longer distance away from the nest. Thus, the more confident the ant is in its path integrator, the shorter distance it will travel during its systematic search. The present study attempts to find if spatial distance covered by the ants during the systematic search is exclusively determined by the distance traveled or if they also depend on other cues and how robust these other cues are.

The experiment was performed on wild desert ants in southern Tunisia and all tested ants belonged to the same colony. There were no visible landmarks around the nest and the foraging area. Before beginning the test, the ants were trained by using a feeder placed about 20 meters south of the nest and the ants that encountered the feeder were marked with a color code. These ants were allowed to forage for one full day before they were tested.

During the test, the ants were captured after they had picked up a food crumb and transferred to a test area. The ants were captured at three places after having traveled a distance of 50 from the feeder to the nest (50-in), after having a traveled a distance of 75 from the feeder (25-in) and at the entrance of the nest (0- in). Fifty ants were captured at each of these distances. The 0-in ants were used as a control. Once transferred to the control area, they were allowed to run their home vector and then their systematic search pattern was recorded.

Once the ants started their systematic search, the center of their search was identified and the width of the search distribution was calculated. To check if the differences in this width of distribution vanished after searching for a long time, the width was calculated three times when the overall search lengths had reached 20, 40 and 50 m. The comparisons between the three groups of ants were carried out using the Kruskal-Wallis one way analysis.

The results showed that the 0-in ants searched in a much narrower area when compared to the 50-in and 25-in ants. These results were also presented in the form of three diagrams showing the paths traveled by the ants in the three groups. In the discussion section, the authors compared the data of the present study with that of an earlier study in which the search loop of 100-in ants was studied. It was found that ants that had been captured at the feeder and transferred to the test area had a much wider search loop than even the 50-in and 25-in ants. Based on this, the authors suggest that when the ants are allowed to reel even a part of their home runs in familiar area, they display much more confidence in their path integrator. The results were also compared to another study in which ants were captured immediately after they left their nest. In this study, when released on the test area, the ants did not start foraging but instead immediately started searching for the nest and their search extensions were extremely small. This experiment suggested that the path integrators were set to zero only after entering the nest and even being in the vicinity of the nest does not reset it.

Based on these results the authors concluded that the 0-in ants had much more confidence in their path integrators, suggesting that factors other than the distance traveled were also involved in their confidence of their path integrators. These other cues could be a variety of things including soil conditions, horizon landmarks or the presence of nest-mates. The authors also discussed an alternative explanation for their results and dismissed it because it was not adequately supported by the observations made. Thus the experiment upheld their initial hypothesis that factors other than distance traveled influences the confidence that desert ants have in their path integrators. For future studies, the authors suggest trying the find if such additional factors do indeed exist, what they are and how they interact with the path integrator. Thus the authors recognize the limitations of the findings of their experiment and realize that the experiment only suggest at the existence of factors others than distance in determining the ants confidence in its path integrator. They leave it to future researchers to confirm the suggestions made by their experiment.

The bcr-abl oncogene is a product of a translocation between chromosomes 9 and 22. This fusion product is also called the Philadephia chromosome and is responsible for the cancer seen in myeloid cells, chronic myeloid leukemia (CML).

Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) is a clonal hematopoietic stem cell disorder with an annual incidence of one to two cases per 100,000 per year (Mauro  Druker, 2001). The disease proceeds in four distinct phases the stable (chronic) phase, advanced phase, accelerated phase, and blast crisis. The first phase, which is the chronic phase, is characterized by massive expansion of myeloid cells. Leukemic cells lose their capacity to terminally differentiate in the other phases, resulting in an acute leukemia, which is highly noncompliant with therapy. The Philadelphia (Ph) chromosome has been found to be the cytogenetic hallmark of all phases of chronic myeloid leukemia and some subsets of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The Ph chromosome is a shortened chromosome 22 that results from a reciprocal translocation between the long arms of chromosomes 9 and 22 (Mauro  Druker, 2001).

CML is distinguished from other conditions by the presence of a distinctive molecular abnormality, namely  a translocation involving the bcr gene on chromosome 22 and the abl gene on chromosome 9 (Kumar, Abbas,  Fausto, 2004).

Researches conducted on oncogenic viruses gave some of the first clues to the mechanisms by which normal cells became malignant.  These viruses have been found to fall into two major groups. These include chronic leukemia viruses and acute transforming viruses.  Chronic leukemia viruses are replication competent and are not known to transform cells in vitro (Rosson  Reddy, 1988). However, several of the chronic leukemia viruses have been implicated in tumors when injected into newborn animals after a lengthy latent period of several months to years.

Discovery
The abl oncogene was initially found in the Abelson murine leukemia virus (Ab-MLV). This virus was isolated about 6 years prior to the discovery that genes contained in some retroviruses were homologous to normal cellular genes and was initially of interest because, unlike most murine  leukemia viruses Ab-MLV induced lymphomas after a very short latent period (Ramakrishnan  Rosenberg, 1989). The ability of Ab-MLV to change both fibroblasts and lymphoid cells in vitro emphasized the biological differences that differentiate the Ab-MLV from other murine leukemia viruses. However, these early experiments only did little to explain the varied and complex responses of cells to abl expression. The identification of the Ab-MLV transforming protein and the finding that many normal cells encode a related protein pointed the way for experiments that culminated in the cloning of the viral genome and the normal cellular homologue of the viral transforming gene (Ramakrishnan et al, 1989).These seminal experiments helped define the properties of the Ab-MLV and was a starting point for understanding the relationship of the virus to the normal cellular abl gene.

The ABL-BCR was first discovered and described by Peter Nowell from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and David Hungerford from Fox Chase Cancer Centres Institute for Cancer Research in 1960. The Chromosome was therefore named after the City in which both institutions were located- Philadephia (Philadelphia chromosome).
The discovery of the Philadelphia chromosome as a hallmark of chronic myelogenous leukemia in 1960 by Peter Nowell provided evidence for a genetic link to cancer (Koretzky, 2007)

Isolation of the bcr-abl oncogene
Different methods have been successfully used to isolate the bcr-abl oncogene. Some of them include
Isolation of BCR-ABL Transfected Ml Clones An expression vector coding for BCR-ABL p210 (pLSV-p210) together with a plasmid conferring resistance to G418 neomycin (pSV2neo) is introduced by electroporation into the S-6 subclone of Ml cells. Stable neo-resistant clones are analyzed for expression and incorporation of the BCR-ABL gene. Northern blot analysis showed that two isolated clones expressed high levels of the BCR-ABL large mRNA transcript. There was no signal either in a control neo clone or in the non transfected parental cells. As a result of the low abundance of the endogenous ABL mRNA transcripts (of 5.3 and 6.5 kilobases) it was not possible to detect them in total RNA samples. The p210 protein, the functional expression of the BCR-ABL gene product, was established by in vitro autokinase assay in immune complexes produced by anti-BCR antibodies. It should be noted that the two BCR-ABL-transfected clones displayed normal growth kinetics and cell cycle distribution, characteristic of parental Ml cells (Zafriri, Argaman, Canaan  Kimchi, 1992).

Expression of v-abl-derived p60 in E. coli A plasmid expression vector, pAS1-Abl-60, is constructed which permits controlled expression of a truncated product of the A-MuLV v-ab1 transforming gene in E. coli (Fergusson, Pritchard, Field, Rieman, Greig, Poste  Rosenberg, 1985).
 In an bid to get high level buildup of  v-abl-derived tyrosine  kinase  in E. coli, fusion of  the  v-ab1  coding  sequence  in-frame  with  the  coding sequence  of  the  first  7  amino  acid  residues  of  a  product (influenza virus NS1) known  to be expressed at high levels  in  E.  coli are carried out.  This approach is designed to ensure that translation of the fusion product will initiate efficiently (Fergusson, Pritchard, Field, Rieman, Greig, Poste  Rosenberg, 1985).

Characterization
The Philadelphia chromosome is found in more than 95 of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia. This chromosome contains 5 BCR gene sequences fused to the ABLgene at its 5 end. The gene product formed is a Bcr-Abl protein that has a greatly elevated protein tyrosine kinase activity. Two forms of the Bcr-Abl protein have been described earlier. Depending on the location of the breakpoint within BCR, either a 210- (P210BCR-ABL) or 185-kDa (P185BCR-ABL) protein is produced (Liu, Wu, Ma, Dailu, Haataja, Heisterkamp, Groffen, Arlinghaus, 1995). The two forms of the Bcr-Abl protein are very important factors in the induction and maintenance of leukemias, as confirmed by mouse studies.
The defect in the BCR-ABL gene is a translocation. Segments of chromosome 9 and 22 swap places which results in a gene (a fusion gene) between the BCR ( breakpoint cluster region) gene from chromosome 22 (region q11) and the Abl1 gene (Abelson, the name of a leukemia virus that carries a similar protein) located on chromosome 9.

Because of its discovery and the early recognition of its role in human cancer, BCR-ABL is one of the most highly studied oncogenes (Etten, 2004).

The translocation results in the oncogene, BCR-ABL gene which is located on the short derivative chromosome 22 and it encodes the BCR-ABL fusion protein with its molecular weight ranging from 185kDa to 210kDa.  The Abl gene expresses a membrane-associated protein, tyrosine kinase and the bcr region expresses serinethreonine kinases but the tyrosine kinase function is of great clinical importance as it is the target for drug therapy.

Treatment of Chronic Myeloid Leukemia
Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a pluripotent hematopoietic stem cell disorder characterized by accumulation of mature and immature granulocytes in peripheral blood and bone marrow due to uncontrolled growth and resistance to apoptosis (Rongzhen, Qinhua, Yingzi, Xiaoying, Xiaoxian, Dong, Qinghua, Xiaohua, Xiao-Fang, 2005).

A breakpoint cluster region (bcr) was identified on chromosome 22 the DNAs of all (over 30) Ph-positive CML patients examined to date have breakpoints in this region of up to 5.8 kb (Grosveld, Verwoerd, Agthoven, Klein, Ramachandran, Heisterkamp, Stam,  Groffen, 1986).

Imatinib
In the late 1990s, Imatinib was first identified by Norvatis pharmaceuticals. Imatinib is a potent inhibitor of tyrosine kinase activity. Gleevec (also called Imatinib or STI571) is a small-molecule inhibitor that binds to the kinase domain of bcrabl oncoprotein and stabilizes the protein in its closed, inactive conformation, thereby inhibiting its activity, and is now a rst-line therapy for the majority of CML cases because of its high efficacy and relatively mild side-effects. (Rongzhen et al, 2005).

The Bcr-Abl fusion protein kinase causes chronic myeloid leukemia and is targeted by the signal transduction inhibitor STI-571Gleevecimatinib (STI-571). Sequencing of the BCR-ABL gene in patients who have relapsed after STI-571 chemotherapy has revealed a limited set of kinase domain mutations that mediate drug resistance (Azam, Latek,  Daley, 2003).

In 80 of newly diagnosed cases of CML, imatinib induces the bone marrow to be totally free of the Philadephia chromosome(Levinson, Reid, Burt, Harrison, Fleming, 2008).     

Do something that you love and youll never have to work a day in your life (Wilson, Blumenthal 87), said Mark Mackay once. I knew when I saw how a chiropractor works that it was the career I wanted to pursue and excel on for the rest of my life. I knew if I become a chiropractor, that Ill love every single day of my professional career.

Healing people has been my calling from the very beginning it just took me quite a long while to figure it out. Every day, I think of the littlest ways to help the people all around me. For instance, I volunteered with Big Brothers Big Sisters and adopted a little brother for a year to do my share for the community. I also have made sack lunches with my church and handed these out to homeless people in my hometown of Little Rock, Arizona. I did all of these because theres this unquenchable inner yearning in me to ease and, hopefully, cure the suffering in my own little corner of the world.
   
Being a chiropractor is the next step toward my lifes mission of using myself as a tool of overall wellness and health. The journey though, has not been easy and is in fact filled with various challenges. For instance, my academic performance used to suffer because I decided to put work before school, thinking that if I worked hard, it would soon pay-off. Thus, I excelled in the workforce but I failed to display my full academic potential. I gathered a lot of valuable experiences in the workforce, but still, I dont hesitate to admit that Ive learned my lesson.
   
Learning continues throughout life and since I graduated college, I have matured tremendously. The major turning point in my life was witnessing the birth of my 6 month old daughter.  It was then that I realized that I have not been living to my full potential. With the precious life now in my hands, I underwent a major shift in philosophy. Now, all I want is to position myself in such a way that I am able to provide for my daughter and ensure a bright future for her. I truly feel that being a chiropractor, practicing a profession that I would love to do forever, will help me achieve this goal.
   
My fascination with the bodys natural ability to heal itself began when I was just in elementary and I learned how a scab forms to help repair torn skin. I saw this natural way of healing in its most beautiful and practical form in chiropractic healthcare. I fell in love with the profession when I saw a local chiropractor about a lower back pain. I was absolutely amazed with the amount of time he spent interacting and getting to know his patients. Medical doctors that I have seen in the past never seem to spend time doing the same. It seemed as if they were more concerned with taking your money and getting you out of their office as fast as possible.
   
More and more, I began to see the great contrast between the natural healing techniques of chiropractic healthcare and the normal medical profession were used to. The medical profession believes that disease causes a lack of health, while chiropractic healthcare believes that a lack of health is expressed as disease. As a result, medicine treats the symptoms of sick people while chiropractics address and treat the root cause, which lead to symptoms.
   
By becoming a chiropractor, I would enjoy a rewarding career that would give me the ability to educate others about their potential for true health and well-being. I would help people decrease their pain, improve their quality of life and help gain and maintain optimal health with safe and effective care. Becoming a chiropractor would be the pinnacle of my mission to help cure this world of suffering.

Cholesterol is a waxy substance that a human body makes and uses to guard nerves, make cell tissues and create hormones. There are mainly two types of cholesterol low density lipoprotein (LDL) and high density lipoprotein (HDL). LDL cholesterol is also called as bad cholesterol, which is the main source of cholesterol buildup and blockage in the arteries. HDL cholesterol is also called as good cholesterol and helps in protecting the arteries from plaque buildup.

When there is excess cholesterol in the blood, it builds up in the arteries walls. Eventually, this buildup of cholesterol causes hardening of the arteries, which makes the arteries narrowed. With narrowed arteries, flow of blood to the heart is slowed down or obstructed. Oxygen is carried to the heart by blood, and if sufficient oxygen and blood cannot reach the heart, the person may suffer from chest pain. If the supply of blood to a part of the heart is totally cut off by obstruction, the outcome is a heart disease (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute 2001).

Cholesterol and Heart Disease
From the past four years, the facts have been gathered that cholesterol is associated with cardiovascular disease, mainly heart attacks and angina. Various studies show that higher the persons average cholesterol level, higher the occurrence of heart disease in that person.There are also indications with animal studies. When rabbits were fed cholesterol, it showed that some of the dietary cholesterol got settled in the arteries. This results in hardening of arteries and narrowing of arteries, which is known as atherosclerosis or arteriosclerosis. This results in reduced flow of blood to the muscles of the heart, which can lead to pain in the chest while exercising or during other stresses and heart attacks (Frohlich 2007). Another relation between cholesterol and cardiovascular disease is noticed in persons with cholesterol inherited disorders like familial hypercholesterolemia. Persons with familial hypercholesterolemia develop cardiovascular disease sooner in life. For example, if the person is inherited with two genes of this order, wide narrowing of arteries can take place as sooner as 5 to 6 years of age. Cardiac problems such as heart attack and angina have been significantly reduced with clinical trials utilising cholesterol lowering regimes like drugs or diet. In the Lipid Research Clinic Study, for every one percent reduction in blood cholesterol, there was two percent reduction in the possibility of a heart attack. In a person, who had angina or had a heart attack, reducing of LDL cholesterol not only reduced the occurrence of succeeding events but also improved the overall survival (Frohlich 2007).

High Cholesterol Levels in Childhood Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors
The strongest risk factors of cardiovascular disease include increased low density lipoprotein (LDL) or bad cholesterol, reduced high density lipoprotein (HDL) or good cholesterol, type 1 or type 2 diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure and cigarette smoking. A few of these risk factors may be noticed at adolescent ages. Research has revealed that these risk factors should be tackled early. Kids and youngsters are becoming more and more fat and obese. According to a recent study, the occurrence of obesity in children of 12 to 19 years old is 15.5 percent.

Due to the outbreak of childhood obesity, the requirement for pediatric health care specialists to become more familiar about the risk factors for cardiovascular disease and to start employing lifestyle modifications in patients has increased (Cook 2009). With the rise in childhood obesity, there is an increased occurrence of pediatric metabolic syndrome, which is another risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Metabolic syndrome is a collection of risk factors for diabetes and cardiovascular disease that appear to be connected to insulin resistance and obesity. Obesity and metabolic syndrome are connected strongly to abnormalities of lipid metabolism. According to the research, overweight school children, between 2.4 and 7.1 times, are more possibly to have high LDL cholesterol, total cholesterol and triglyceride levels than normal weight children. More number of mechanisms are present, by which insulin resistance can result in dyslipidemias. Hepatic synthesis of VLDL cholesterol, which leads to augmented LDL cholesterol and triglycerides, is increased with overloaded insulin presence in blood.Effects of insulin on lipoprotein lipase, an enzyme that helps in breaking down lipoproteins, increases the levels of LDL cholesterol and triglycerides. Sometimes, HDL cholesterol is degraded more quickly in patients who have metabolic syndrome.

Even, obesity obviously adds to dyslipidemias and cardiovascular disease, a significant genetic component is also added to the risk. If any of the family members is having cardiovascular disease, there is an increased risk for children or youngsters to develop the disease at some phase of their life. The family member can include a parent or a grandparent of age less than 55 who have cerebrovascular disease, peripheral vascular disease, coronary atherosclerosis, or myocardial infarction, coronary artery procedure or unexpected cardiac death. Children, who have high cholesterol levels or their parents with high cholesterol levels, are believed to be at risk. Diagnosis is suggested for them (Cook 2009).
Cook, W. B. (2009) High Cholesterol in Childhood Risk Factors for Cardiovascular Disease. Medscape Today online 34, (3) 27-32.

Statins, Cholesterol Levels, and Coronary Heart Disease Prevention
Statin is one of the most commonly prescribed drugs in the world. Before 20 years back, patients with high serum cholesterol levels, and those who had earlier experienced a heart attack, were not given any cholesterol lowering drugs. At that period, most of the Americans did not even hear about LDL and HDL cholesterols and very few have gone for measurements of cholesterol levels. With the innovation and progress of the statins, the obstruction was demolished, which blocked extensive cholesterol lowering treatment. Several studies regarding statins were published in the early and late 1900s. Those studies revealed that these drugs can decrease cardiovascular disease death and heart attack rates by 20 to 50 percent, based on the initial blood cholesterol levels and existence or non-existence of heart disease risk factors. The drug, statin, was shown to work effectively in women and men, middle aged people and old, and in patients with or without pre-existing diabetes or heart disease (Freeman 2006). After the beginning of 21st century, the atherosclerosis problem is not solved, however. Statin therapy noticeably decreases future cardiovascular events in people who have had an earlier heart attack, but it is short of providing ultimate cure.

The science advancement from the past twenty years have demonstrated a significant task of the immune system, mainly the macrophage and T lymphocyte, in encouraging the progress and coronary plaque catastrophic rupture that results in heart attacks or unexpected coronary death. The immunological responses look to be started by high cholesterol levels penetrating into the artery wall. But, once the procedure has started, even remarkable decrease in blood cholesterol appears to be incompetent of totally stopping it. HDL cholesterol has been exposed to alter immune responses and to take part in a path that is intended to eliminate cholesterol from the walls of the artery. According to the animal data, we can efficiently and cleverly interrupt immune processes straightly, or through the improvement of HDL functioning, but if we would have extra, important therapeutic methods in preventing cardiovascular disease. These approaches when combined with statins could radically decrease the atherosclerosis. We do not have enough tools to reduce the cholesterol levels, but those tools and their demonstration are possibly followed in the coming decade (Freeman 2006).

Freeman, M. W. (2006) Statins, Cholesterol, and the Prevention of Coronary Heart Disease. The FASEB Journal online 20, (2) 200-201. Available from httpwww.fasebj.orgcgicontentfull202200 2006
Importance of Cholesterol, Blood Pressure and Smoking for Coronary Heart Disease
Epidemiological studies conducted over the last five decades have shown that increased blood pressure, dyslipidemia, and cigarette smoking raise cardiovascular disease risks and randomised experiments have shown that reducing cholesterol and blood pressure prevents cardiovascular disease risks. However, there are popular fallacies about the significance of these traditional risk factors, including the extensively held belief that these risk factors account for only half of all coronary heart diseases. The Population Attributable Risk Fractions (PARF) method is a helpful way of measuring the combined impact of cholesterol, smoking and blood pressure for ischemic heart disease (IHD) mortality, but it emphasises the restrictions of using threshold values to decide the risk. Epidemiological studies have showed the log-linear relations between total cholesterol and ischemic heart disease risk, so that for each change in cholesterol unit, there is similar proportional modification in risk, in spite of early cholesterol levels  with no noticeable value of threshold below which lesser total cholesterol value is not related to lesser IHD risk (Lewington 2003).

The Heart Protection Study showed that statin therapy use to reduce levels of total cholesterol is linked to a like proportional decrease in cardiovascular disease risk, in spite of whether the previous total cholesterol treatment level is above or below 5.5mmoll.The Prospective studies meta-analysis demonstrated that the relations of general systolic blood pressure with IHD and stroke mortality are log-linear below to at least 11575 mmHG. Generally, a 200mmHg variation in normal systolic blood pressure is related to a two-fold variation in cardiovascular risk. However, there is a threat that results could be misunderstood to support the significance of 5.5mmoll as a value of threshold for total cholesterol. An even enhanced method to evaluate the significance of these identified vital risk factors can be to estimate the impact on risk of ending smoking and of modest and practical decline in blood pressure and cholesterol that could be attained, for example, by lessening the intake of salt in processed food and promoting the substitution of saturated fat in cooking with monounsaturated fats or polyunsaturated fats (Lewington 2003).

Lewington, S. (2003) The Importance of Cholesterol, Blood Pressure and Smoking for Coronary Heart Disease. European Heart Journal online 24, (19) 1703-1704.

Patients awareness of cholesterol, cardiovascular disease risk, and risk communication strategies
In spite of some latest developments in familiarity about cholesterol in U.S., patient obedience to cholesterol treatment suggestions are below the optimum level.

A study is conducted that discovered patients awareness of cholesterol and cardiovascular disease and their responses to three strategies for communicating cardiovascular disease risk. Researchers conducted seven focus groups in New England by means of open ended questions and visual threat communication prompts. The multidisciplinary study group carried out an in-depth analysis using immersioncrystallisation methods. The coded reports were analysed with the help of qualitative coding software NVivo (Goldman 2006).Participants from the groups were all conscious that high cholesterol levels negatively affect health. However, many participants had insufficient awareness about hypercholesterolemia and cardiovascular disease risk, and few were familiar with their cholesterol numbers. Many participants thought that their cholesterol levels were healthy, even if the doctor had not stated it. An approach that offers a cardiovascular risk adjusted age was estimated as apparent, impressive, appropriate, and potentially capable of inspiring people to formulate healthy changes. Few participants in every group were worried that a cardiovascular risk-adjusted age that was larger than chronological age would scare patients.

Difficult explanations about cholesterol levels and cardiovascular disease risk look to be inadequate for inspiring behaviour change. A cardiovascular risk-adjusted age calculator is a method that may keep patients in identifying their cardiovascular disease risk and, when combined by information about reduction of risk, it may be supportive in communicating cardiovascular disease risk to patients (Goldman 2006).
Goldman, R. E. et al. (2006) Patients Perceptions of Cholesterol, Cardiovascular Disease Risk, and Risk Communication Strategies.

Treating High Cholesterol
The main aim of the cholesterol treatment is to decrease the LDL cholesterol levels as much as necessary to decrease the risk of developing cardiovascular disease or heart attack. The greater the risk, the lesser the LDL cholesterol objective will be. There are two ways to reduce cholesterol levels Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes (TLC) TLC includes diet that lowers cholesterol, exercise, and weight management. TLC diet TLC diet is a low saturated fat and low cholesterol intake plan that contains less than seven percent of calories from saturated fat and less than 200 milligrams of dietary cholesterol per day. This diet suggests only sufficient calories to sustain a wanted weight and prevent weight gain (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute 2001). Weight management losing weight if a person is overweight can help decrease LDL cholesterol and it is particularly important for those with a group of risk factors that includes low HDL levels and high triglyceride levels and being obese with a large measurement of waist.Exercise Regular exercise is suggested for everyone. It helps in raising HDL levels and lowering LDL levels and is particularly important for those with low HDL levels and high triglyceride and being obese with a large measurement of waist. Drug treatment If drugs that reduce cholesterol are required, they are used with TLC treatment to lower the LDL cholesterol levels.