30 July 2007

There's bad news and there's...

Bad news.
New Canadian research shows that the presence of trans fats in the blood system can also mess with the heart's rhythm, worsening the severity of a heart attack and jacking up the likelihood of death.

"It's like a double whammy," said Peter Light, a researcher at the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute in Edmonton and lead author of the study.

The new study, published in the European Molecular Biology Journal, helps elucidate how trans fats kill. Dr. Light said the heart is essentially an electric organ, and it uses fat as an energy source. A wave of electricity passes through the heart once per second, and each time calcium is pumped in and then out again.
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RELATED: I'll say it again...

The Conservatives blew this one.
-- OTTAWA -- Health Canada will delay regulation of trans fats in Canadian food products for at least two years, calling instead for industry to voluntarily limit use of the heart-clogging compounds.

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