While weight loss -- regardless of what dietary route is taken -- should reduce the risk of atherosclerosis, Phillips hypothesizes that those on a low-fat diet will have better vascular endothelial function compared to those on the low-carbohydrate diets, and therefore will have reduced risk of heart disease. He will check if low-carbohydrate diets also lower levels of the blood protein hormone adiponectin, which helps control the harmful reactive oxygen species.

"Is adiponectin a secret to how blood circulation is protected?" Phillips asked. "It is usually high and protective in lean individuals, and has been associated with obesity, where it's lower," he said. How diet may affect adiponectin levels and other markers of cardiovascular health and how these factors might protect small blood vessels is a previously unexplored question Phillips hopes to answer.

"We're looking for healthy ways to live," Phillips said. "Heart disease is a main killer. Can research uncover new ways that allow people to prevent it more effectively? If we know about certain aspects of a diet that affects vasculature, we hope to leverage it to a better treatment candidate."

Source: University of Illinois