Free Republic

High levels of triglycerides, the most common type of fat in the body and the foods we eat, directly cause abdominal aortic aneurysms, according to a study in mouse models. Researchers identified triglyceride-rich lipoproteins and proteins that regulate triglyceride metabolism, including APOC3 and ANGPTL3, as causal drivers of abdominal aortic aneurysm. The study challenges the longstanding belief that triglycerides are merely biomarkers of vascular disease and instead demonstrates that they play a direct role. "We have known that hyperlipidemia is a risk factor for aortic aneurysm, but this multidimensional study pinpoints hypertriglyceridemia as an essential contributor to the development and...

Journalist Grant Wahl’s cause of death has been revealed following an autopsy after his sudden passing while reporting at the World Cup in Qatar. Wahl’s widow, Dr. Celine Gounder, told CBS News on Wednesday that her husband’s death was due to a heart condition. “He had an autopsy done here in New York by the New York City medical examiner’s office, and it showed that he had an aortic aneurysm that ruptured,” Gounder said during the interview. “It’s just one of these things that had been likely brewing for years, and for whatever reason it happened at this point in...

Aortic aneurysms are a major killer globally. The aorta is an enormous blood vessel that carries blood away from your heart, and when it develops an abnormal bulge this is known as an aortic aneurysm (Einstein had one wrapped with literal cellophane). They can cause discomfort, but most people aren’t aware that they have an aortic aneurysm until it’s picked up in scans. If the aneurysm ruptures, it causes mass internal bleeding, which is usually fatal, so detecting these vessel abnormalities is a key step in the prevention of death. Now, a study published in the American Journal of Cardiology...