The most taken for granted organ in our body is the liver.

It is also the most amazing, since it processes almost every chemical that is absorbed by the body. Heart disease is a confusing concept because it is actually the liver that causes it. Contrary to what we learn from various television commercials for the countless pharmaceutical cholesterol drugs on the market, the balance of HDL and LDL cholesterol is controlled by your liver.

Your liver produces cholesterol on its own even if you watch what you eat this is only one of its major functions. If it didn’t your nervous system would break down. So it’s not really that cholesterol is bad, but that an excess of cholesterol is bad for you. Genetics plays a major role in how your body manages cholesterol. There is a gene that produces a recently discovered enzyme called PCSK9. Normally your body’s cells bind to LDL cholesterol and remove it from the body. Unfortunately, PCSK9 binds to the same parts of a cell that LDL cholesterol does. The more PCSK9 enzyme, the less cholesterol is removed from the body.

Enter a company called Alnylam, they have been around since 2005 and have been working on the Rosetta Stone of human drugs…RNAi therapy. The reason I mention this company is because this therapy will make a Hepatitis C infection a thing of the past. Their RNAi drugs are designed to go in and alter specific parts of your genes or viruses and turn them off. This will affect all viruses, HCV, HIV, HPV, HSV, and RSV. Turn off the virus’ replication switch and you end their ability to sustain an infection. This is very exciting stuff!

Besides working on a drug for Hepatitis C, Alnylam is working on a way to reduce LDL cholesterol by switching off the gene that produces PCSK9 in your body. So far the test results have been amazing, the only caveat is you will need to take it by injection…but that’s nothing new to people who suffer from Hep C.

So keep your eyes on them and be sure to send them an email to express your interest in them pushing their Hepatitis C drug to the front of their drug development pipeline. You can read more about their discoveries here.

Also keep in mind that liver disease can increase your chances of heart disease, so if you have not been treated for Hepatitis C or treatment failed your chances of a heart attack or stroke increase. Control your LDL with diet and exercise.