Ted Harrison says the more he plays. The luckier he gets. "Good shot!" For the last 20 years, he's been trying to use that luck to win the fight against his body. "I had radical throat cancer. I had open heart surgery. I have had 9 stents." Now Ted has extremely high levels of LDL or bad cholesterol. "It's really an awful thing to have."
His high cholesterol is genetic. Changing his diet, exercising and medication didn't help, so Ted is one of the first to have his bad cholesterol or LDL removed from his body. Endocrinologists at Washington University in Saint Louis are using help -- heparin-induced extracorporeal lipoprotien precipitation -- to control Ted's cholesterol. "You're filtering out the bad cholesterol."
The blood is separated into red cells and plasma. The plasma runs through this machine which grabs on to a protein found in LDL and removes it from the blood. The cleaned plasma is put back together with the red blood cells and returned to the body.
Dr. Anne Carol Goldberg, endocrinologist, "This is the most efficient process for lowering LDL because it happens immediately."
Ted's LDL level went from over 200 to under 100 after one treatment -- but the bad cholesterol will build back up within weeks, so Ted will have the procedure twice a month, indefinitely. "Any cholesterol you can keep out of your arteries that builds plaque is good!" It could be his last shot at a healthy life. "A trick shot!"
Normal LDL is under one-hundred. to be eligible for the filter, a person must have an LDL level of at least three-hundred, or two-hundred if they have heart disease. The procedure is offered at a few dozen locations across the U.S.
